JPS5836348B2 - Variable size character generation method with constant display density - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] The present invention relates generally to character generators.

More particularly, it relates to a point display system for displaying variable size characters with a constant point display density.

The technology for generating alphabets, numbers, or other types of characters is relatively well developed.

Currently, CRT (cathode ray tube)-matrix type character generators are disclosed in various applications.

Representative examples of such generators include the following U.S. patents: Patent No. 33,058, granted February 21, 1967, to Mr. Schwartz for pattern generators.
No. 41, regarding a character generator for simultaneously displaying different character patterns on a plurality of display devices, R. J. Patent No. 3 granted to Mr. Clark on February 4, 1969
No. 426344, Point size 10 for character display devices and display control devices E. R. No. 3588872 granted June 28, 1971 to Mr. Kolb, September 28, 1971 to Mr. Lasoff for display devices.
No. 3,609,743, granted in 1997, A. E. November 2, 1971 against Mr. Malden
No. 3,623,069, granted on the 3rd, and D.C. for Rusk Scanning Symbol Generator. B. No. 3668687 granted to Mr. Hale on June 6, 1972, etc.

Percussive or non-percussive matrix printers are currently used to print a variety of characters on hardcopy.

A typical matrix printer type character generator is described in a letter to Mr. Art et al. on May 1, 1969 regarding character generators.
No. 344-4319, granted on January 3, 1972, and US Pat.
No.

Currently available matrix point display devices and printers have some flexibility in terms of character shapes and fonts, but cannot change character size on a line by line basis.

In many printed materials, it is desirable to be able to print characters of different sizes on each line or document.

An example of such printed material is a standard shipping label.1 This shipping label uses one size of font for the product code or description of the product, another size for the consignee, and a different font for the consignee. For example, you can use a different size of font for the destination.

Variable size characters are potentially very useful in any document requiring emphasis on text, so a matrix printing system that can selectively vary the size of the characters has a wide range of applications.

Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a point display system with variable font size.

Another specific object of the present invention is to provide a variable size character generator that can be connected to conventional percussive or non-percussive matrix printers.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a constant matrix print density for each character regardless of the size of the character.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a variable size character generator in which each character is defined by a combination of several size independent types.

A feature of the invention is that only six of these size-independent types are required to generate all the characters.

Yet another feature of the invention is that its six type elements (types) are binary coded so that any character in the 5x7 format can be defined with only seven words per character.

Yet another feature of the present invention is that the size-independent binary code configuration for type elements allows the use of relatively small amounts of storage and I/O busses.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a standard matrix printer, either percussive or non-percussive, is used to output variable size characters.

The size of the characters is controlled by varying the number of points printed in each of the 35 elements (points at 10 magnification) in the 5x7 matrix.

Other matrix configurations are also possible within the scope of the coding scheme of the present invention.

The method of the present invention uses six different size independent type elements for each matrix element.

Characters are defined by a 5x7 matrix, and each element of the matrix has six types: (1) blank, (
2) A square, in this case a matrix element (magnification 1
0:00 is a point) The entire area is filled in.

(3) Half of the matrix element space has a slope of 0
It is filled in the shape of a triangle.

(4) Half of the matrix element space has a slope of 9
It is filled in the shape of a 0 degree triangle.

(5) Half of the matrix element space has a slope of 1
It is filled in the shape of an 80 degree triangle.

and (6) half of the matrix element space is filled in a triangular shape with an inclination of 270 degrees.

Each array can be taken.

A different binary code is assigned to each of these six arrays (type elements).

In the case of a 5.times.7 matrix configuration, each row of the matrix can be encoded by assigning to each row of the matrix seven numbers of 15 bits each for each character.

This number allows one of seven rows of five elements each to be specified.

As a result of this encoding, the seven 15-bit numbers obtained are:
A descriptor (in which a type element is specified for each element of the matrix) independent of the character size is defined for each character.

The size of the letters is varied by changing the size of each type element, triangle or square, in both the X and Y directions simultaneously.

Since the output device in the preferred embodiment is a matrix printer, increasing the size of the six mold elements is accomplished by converting the desired size of each mold element into a sequence of points printed by the matrix printer.

Thus, if we want a square of "size 3", the square element will have 3 points on each side.

It is converted into a square made up of points.

Similarly, the triangle "J-chair 4" is formed by placing four points on each side of the triangle.

Other magnifications can be obtained by increasing the number of matrix printing points on each side of the six mold elements.

The character generator generates a 7-bit output to drive the matrix printer.

If the size of the character is larger than a seven point vertical print line on a standard matrix printer, several passes of the printer may be required to print the character.

However, because the spacing between each print point of the printer is constant, the matrix print density of characters is always constant, even if the size of the characters varies from line to line or document to document.

From the above brief summary of the invention, objects and features of the invention may be best understood from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof, selected for illustration and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings, the method of the present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1-5, and the structure for implementing the method is shown in the functional block diagram of FIG. 6.

In the present invention, variable size characters are generated by a matrix having a predetermined number of elements, each of which has a predetermined number of type elements independent of the size of the character. This is achieved by defining each character.

In a preferred embodiment, the six character size independent type elements are tabulated in FIG. It is used to form characters such as the character ``9'', which is indicated by

The six type elements 10a to 10f, which are independent of character size, each have an empty square or space in which nothing is printed, a filled square whose entire area is filled with printing, and a slope of 0. These are a degree printed triangle, a 90 degree printed triangle, a 180 degree printed triangle, and a 270 degree printed triangle.

The six mold elements 10a to 10f are shown in FIG. 2A.
All of which are used by the NXM matrix 14 to display character 9.

For purposes of illustration, the matrix is shown as a regular 5x7 matrix.

However, it should be understood that matrices with other configurations than a 5x7 matrix can be used in accordance with the invention to generate variable-size characters with various aspect ratios.

For the case of a 5x7 matrix shown for illustration in Figure 2A, the matrix has five vertical columns and seven
It is allowed to define 35 elements arranged in two horizontal rows.

Each matrix element has a specific type element.

For example, the element identified in the first row, first column of FIG. 2A has a mold element 10d, or 90 degree triangle;
The element identified in row, fifth column has type element 10C, or O degree triangle.

Each of the six type elements 10a to 10f is assigned a 3-bit binary code as shown in FIG.

By encoding the type element of each element 16 of matrix 14, for each character 12, seven 15-bit numbers 1
8 can be used for encoding.

This number 18 determines the arrangement of type elements for each one of the seven rows.

FIG. 2B shows the code arrangement for the character 0 9 +1 shown in FIG. 2A.

The seven 15-bit numbers determined by this code arrangement determine the descriptor 20 for each character 12, independent of character size.

According to such a code structure, each character can be described with the same amount of data, but its size is different, and the amount of data to be stored can be greatly reduced.

In the present invention, the size of the entire character 12 is determined by each type element 10a.
to 10f by varying the size in both the X and Y directions.

Since the output device of the preferred embodiment is a matrix printer, scaling up the size of the six mold elements is accomplished by converting the desired size of each mold element into a series of points printed by the matrix printer.

However, similar techniques can be applied to a generalized form of the invention in which each type element is transformed into a series of internal display points in one of two display states.

In the first state, the condition for display is "visible", while in the second state, it is "invisible".

Thus, as used herein, the term ``one point display'' refers to a device that creates a visual image by means of a plurality of discrete points having two display states.

3A, 3B, and 4, FIG. 3A shows an enlarged square of "size 3" corresponding to the matrix element 16 shown in FIG. 2A.

According to the enlargement algorithm, a square of size 3 is transformed into a square of 22 points, with 3 points on each side.

Thus, in a "size 3" configuration, each matrix element 16 is defined by nine matrix printing points arranged in a square with three points on each side.

Similarly, a square or triangle of size 4 is
As shown in the figure, it is formed by setting the number of points on each side to 4.

Although only the "size 3" and "size 4" levels of enlargement are shown in the figure, other enlargements also increase the number of matrix printing points on each side of the six mold elements 10a to 10f. It should be understood that it can be obtained by

One of the features and advantages of the present invention is that the point density in the visual display or print is constant regardless of each character size.

The spacing between points 22 is the same for size 3'' and size 4 as shown in Figures 3A and 3.
You can see this by looking at diagram B.

According to this configuration, only the visually displayed or hardcopy printed characters are improved to be thicker.

FIG. 4 shows the entire character 9 shown in FIG. 2A enlarged to size 3.

For clarity, the configuration of the 9-point, 3x3 array representing the type elements of each matrix element 16 is shown in Figure 4.
Only the elements identified in the row, first column are shown.

In particular, looking at the element in the first row and first column, the visual display point or printing point 22 is the filled black circle 2.
2a and white circles 22b, which indicate points to be printed and points not to be printed, respectively.

The so-called "no print" point 22b has been omitted in the remainder of FIG. 4 for the sake of clarity.

From a comparison between FIG. 2A and FIG. 4, it can be seen that each mold element 10a to 10f has a size of "3" by representing it with nine printing points 22 arranged in a 3x3 square It can be seen that it has been expanded to

Each type element is visually indicated by a point 22a and/or no point 22b.

The visual representation of each mold element point 22 can be physically achieved in a variety of ways.

As previously mentioned, in the preferred embodiment, conventional percussive or non-percussive matrix printers, these points may or may not be printed.

However, the invention is equally suitable for all other types of visual point display devices, such as electronic scoreboards, stock ticker displays or cathode ray tubes.

Although the scanning format may be varied accordingly depending on the type of point display device used to display the enlarged characters as shown in FIG. is best understood by thinking about

For example, the visual display of enlarged characters shown in Figure 4 is produced by a matrix printer having a print head with seven vertically arranged printing wires mounted on a horizontally moving carriage. I think so.

Each print wire is selectively struck in a conventional manner as the carriage moves horizontally across the print line.

Looking at FIG. 4, it can be seen that the enlarged character "9" is printed by three passes in the horizontal direction of the printer according to such a matrix printer.

In FIG. 4, each pass is represented by an appropriate label: 0 print line #1'', 6 print line #2'', and 6 print line #3''.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that other printing or display formats may be employed to display or print enlarged characters such as that shown in FIG.

For example, if the printer printed only one line in each horizontal pass instead of seven, it would require 21 passes of the printer to print the character "9"; If 21 lines were printed in one pass, only one pass of the printer across the page would be required to print the enlarged characters 11 g n.

A series of points 22 (in generalized form, a display point } 22a and a hidden point } 22b, or in a particular implementation 6 print" points 22a and 6)
The "no print" points 22b) are converted into a corresponding plurality of binary point display or point print signals as shown in the table of FIG.

2, indicated generally by the reference numeral 24 in FIG.
The base printing signals are arranged in a corresponding row, column configuration in a display or printing device having seven vertically arranged display or print points per scanning or print line.

Binary print signal 24 is preferred for use in driving conventional matrix printers through a buffer, as will be explained in more detail below.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a functional block diagram illustrates a preferred embodiment of the variable character size matrix printing system of the present invention.

The main components shown in FIG. 6 are as follows.

EIA (Electronic Engineers Association) standard RS232 serial interface 26, random access memory (RAM) 28,
Read-only memory (ROM) 30, central processing unit (CPU)
) 32, a printer interface 34, and a conventional percussion or non-percussion matrix printer 36.

ROM 30 includes an expansion logic section 38, an interface control logic section 40, a matrix printer control logic section 42, and a character symbol table section 44.

RAM 28 has two input data buffers 46 and 4.
8 and two output data buffers 50 and 52.

The operation of the variable character size printing system shown in Figure 6 is as follows:
The operation of the system can be best understood by examining it step by step.

Input data encoded as As(,-n (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is read into the serial interface 26 and converted to 16-bit parallel format.

The data in parallel form is then stored in the appropriate input data buffer.

When both input data buffers 46 and 48 are empty, data in 16-bit parallel format is stored in the first input data buffer 46.

If the input buffer 46 is full, the second input data buffer 48 begins storing data and processes the data in the first input data buffer.

The data in input data buffer 46 is processed in the following order to generate enlarged characters.

First, each character signal is used to specify the desired character symbol table from among the character symbol tables 44.

One character symbol table 44 includes, for each character, a type element 10 that defines that character.

In the preferred embodiment, six character size independent type elements 10a through 10f are used to define each character.

As discussed above, these type elements are encoded into 3-bit binary numbers and stored in a descriptor 20 consisting of 7 words for each character.

Each type element 10a-10f is expanded according to the size determined by the input data.

The resulting binary point display signal is divided in accordance with the scanning of the matrix printer 36 and stored in the first output data bath 50 for said scanning.

The foregoing process is repeated for each character signal stored in input data buffer 46.

When the entire input database sofa 6 has been processed, one scan is printed on the matrix printer 36.

The input data buffer 46 is processed and the resulting data is transferred as many times as necessary (N times for character size N)
To print, the printer 71 is scanned the required number of times.

It should be noted that processing of this input data buffer occurs in parallel with the printing of the previous scan.

When the processing of the input data buffer 46 is completed (printing of data is not necessarily completed) and the second input data buffer 48 is full, the input data is transferred to the first input data buffer 48.
The data in the second input data buffer 48 is processed in the same manner as described above with respect to the data in the first input data buffer 46.

Having described the preferred embodiments of the invention in detail, it will be appreciated that the invention, in its generalized form as well as in its specific embodiments, has significant advantages over existing character generators. Will.

The use of character size independent type elements to define each character greatly reduces the storage requirements of this system.

This is because each type element can be defined using the same amount of data regardless of its size.

In the preferred six type element character determination, a 3-bit number from 00 to 5 is used to encode each type element, and the two other available numbers, namely 6 and 7, are used to encode each type element.
is left over.

This code structure creates a seven word descriptor for each character in a 5x7 matrix system.

The basic concept of the present invention is disclosed in patent application Ser.

From the above detailed description of the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention.

Note that the embodiments of the present invention include the following.

Embodiment 1 The method of claims, wherein each character is defined by a 5x7 matrix having 35 elements.

Embodiment 2. The method of claim 1 including buffering the converted print signal before being sent to the matrix printer.

Embodiment 3. The method of claim 3, wherein the predetermined number of size-independent mold elements is six.

Embodiment 4 The method of embodiment 3, wherein said type element is: (
1) blank area, (2) filled square, (3) O degree filled triangle, (4) 90 degree filled triangle,
(5) 180 degree filled triangle, and (6) 27
A filled triangle of 0 degrees.

Embodiment 5 A method for generating variable size matrix printed characters, including the following steps.

(1) each character is defined by a matrix having a predetermined number of elements, each of which has one of six size-independent type elements, and (2) each type element of the desired size. converted into continuous points and printed in each matrix element by a matrix splinter, the matrix printing density of said printing points remains the same regardless of the size of said character; (3) continuous points printed; (4) generating a plurality of binary print signals for the matrix printer corresponding to the matrix printer, one binary state representing a "print" state and the other binary state representing a "no print"state; (5) applying the converted print signals to the matrix printer; and (5) applying the converted print signals to the matrix printer.

Method.

Embodiment 6 A method for generating variable-size matrix printed characters, including: (1) defining each character by a matrix having a predetermined number of elements, each of which has six size-independent elements; (2) assigning a numerical code to each of the six type elements; (3) assigning each element of the matrix a type element code consisting of a numerical value representing each type element of the character defined by those type elements; encoded line by line by , whereby each character is represented by a plurality of numbers representing each line's type element code for that character, said plurality of numbers defining a unique descriptor for that character, (4 ) storing each of the character descriptors; (5) converting the desired size of each type element defined by the character descriptor into successive points and printing them in each matrix element by a matrix printer; and determining the matrix printing density of said printing points. remains the same regardless of the size of said character; (6) a plurality of 2 points corresponding to said consecutive points to be printed;
Generates a binary print signal, and one binary state is ゜′print”
(7) converting the plurality of binary print signals into a signal format consistent with a print line format of the matrix printer; (8) converting the converted Apply the printed signal to the matrix printer.

Methods including methods.

Embodiment 7 The method of embodiment 6, wherein each character is defined by a 7x5 matrix having 35 elements.

Embodiment 8 The method of embodiment 7, wherein each character descriptor consists of seven words.

Embodiment 9 The numerical element codes each consist of 3 bits, and are 0 to 3 bits.
Embodiment 6. The method of embodiment 6 representing one of six numbers in a series of seven numbers.

Embodiment 10 The method of embodiment 9, wherein each character descriptor is comprised of seven 15-bit numbers.

Embodiment 11 A method in which the mold elements are: (1) a blank area, (2) a filled square, (3) an O degree filled triangle, (4) a 90 degree filled triangle, (5) 180
A filled triangle of degrees, and 'fi6) A filled triangle of 2 70 degrees.

Embodiment 12 The method of embodiment 6 including a method of buffering the converted print signal before it is applied to the matrix printer.

Note that there are the following embodiments of the device.

Embodiment 13 An apparatus for generating variable-size characters for point display, comprising: (1) an apparatus for defining each character in a matrix having a predetermined number of elements, each of which elements being:
(2) a device having independent type elements of a predetermined size, (2) converting each type element of a desired size into continuous points and displaying them in each matrix element by point representation; remains the same regardless of the size of each character; (3) generates a plurality of binary display signals for point display corresponding to said consecutive points to be displayed, one binary state being ``display''; A signal generator for representing a state, the other binary state representing a ``non-display'' condition.

Embodiment 14 By means of a point display device responsive to the binary display signal,
Embodiment 130 Generator further characterized.

Embodiment 15 A variable-size character generator for a matrix printer, comprising: (1) an apparatus for defining each character by a matrix having a predetermined number of elements, each of which includes six size-independent type elements; (2) an apparatus for converting each type element of a desired size into consecutive points and printing in each matrix element by a matrix printer, wherein the matrix printing density of said printing points is equal to or smaller than that of each character; remains the same regardless of size, (3)
generating a plurality of binary print signals for a matrix printer corresponding to said consecutive points to be printed, one binary state representing a 'print' condition and the other binary state representing a 'no print'condition; and (4) a signal format conversion device for converting the plurality of binary print signals into a signal format consistent with a print line format of a matrix printer.

Embodiment 16 A variable size character generator for a matrix printer, including the following.

(1) Defining a matrix for each character, each element of the matrix being a character descriptor having one of six size-independent type elements, said descriptor being for each element of the matrix It includes a plurality of numeric type element codes representing type elements corresponding to specific characters, and the numeric type element codes are:
Arranged in each row of the matrix, for that character,
(2) Converting the size of each type element defined by the descriptor into consecutive points and printing them in each matrix element by a matrix printer, a size input signal responsive device connected to the descriptor storage device for printing, the matrix printing density of the printing points;
Regardless of the size of said font, it remains the same and (
3) said size input signal response generating a plurality of binary print signals corresponding to said consecutive points to be printed, one binary state representing a 'print' condition and the other binary state representing a 'no print'condition; a signal generating device connected to the apparatus; and (4) a device for converting the plurality of binary print signals to a signal format consistent with the print line format of the matrix printer.

Embodiment 17 Embodiment 160 character generator, wherein the character descriptor represents a 5x7 matrix for each character.

Embodiment 18 The character generator of embodiment 16, wherein the type elements are: (1) a blank area; (2) a filled square;
3) 0 degree filled triangle, (4) 90 degree filled triangle, (5) 180 degree filled triangle, and (6) 270 degree filled triangle.

Embodiment 19 Each of the numerical type element codes is one of six numbers from 0 to 7.
An embodiment representing one 160 character generator.

Embodiment 20 Embodiment 190 Character Generator Implementation, wherein said character descriptor represents a 5×7 matrix of each character, and said numeric type element codes are arranged row by row in the matrix to form seven 15-bit numbers. Aspect 21. The character generator of embodiment 16, further comprising apparatus for bathoring the converted print signal before it is applied to a matrix printer.

Embodiment 22 further comprising a signal input device for addressing the character descriptor storage in response to an input signal representing a character having a descriptor stored in the storage device.
Character generator according to embodiment 16.

Embodiment 23. Embodiment 220 character generator, wherein the character descriptor storage device comprises a read-only storage device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

In the accompanying drawings, FIG. 1 is a table showing six size-independent type elements used to define characters. FIG. 2A is a 5×7 matrix diagram showing the construction of a character 11 9 11 using the six type elements described in FIG. Figure 2B is a diagram showing a descriptor consisting of seven 15-bit numbers for the character "9" using the binary type element code described in Figure 1. Figures 3A and 3B are , showing configurations of triangular and square shaped elements of size '3'' and size +1 4 JT, respectively. Figure 4 shows the character 11 shown in size "3" in Figure 2.
g +1. It shows printing by three printing passes of a matrix printer. FIG. 5 is a table showing the first pass print signal input to the matrix printer in binary format for the character "9" of size "3". FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of the variable size character printing system. (Explanation of symbols representing main parts of the drawing), 10...-
...Type element, 14...Matrix, 16.
... Matrix element, 20 ... Descriptor, 22 ... Print point, 24 ...
...Binary print signal, 26°...Serial interface, 28...Random access memory (RA)
M), 30...Read-only memo IJ (R'O
M), 32...Central processing unit (CPU), 3
4...-Printer interface, 36...
... Matrix printer, 38 ... Expansion logic section, 40 ... Interface control logic section, 42 ... Matrix printer control logic section, 44 ... Character Symbol table section, 46, 48... Input data buffer - 50, 52... Output data buffer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A method of creating characters of variable size defined by a matrix and expressed in points, each of which has a given number of matrix elements each having one of a given number of type elements independent of size. Decide on the characters, (2
) converting each type element of the desired size into a series of points represented by point representation within each matrix element, the display density of said points remaining the same regardless of the size of said character; 3) a plurality of binary display signals, such that one binary state represents a "display" state and the other binary state represents a "non-display" state for point display corresponding to said series of points; occurs,
and (4) sending said binary display signal to a point display.