JPS59223840A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the processing efficiency of a printer by using a modification data used to change partially a horizontal skip data and transferring the result from the processor side to print a copy with which the printing position of the print data is changed. CONSTITUTION:The original data is written to a memory OUT from a page buffer PB and then outputted through a printer control part. In this case, it is decided whether the data is equal to the print data or the skip data. Then the data is written to the different areas of the same address. In case of the print data, the addresses are increased. While no increment is given to the addresses in case of the horizontal skip data. In a copy qualification mode, the address of the memory OUT is selected in response to the number of digits of the supplied character. A selection circuit SEL2 decides whether the contents of modification are equal to the printed data or the horizontal skip data. Then the contents of the OUT are delivered through a printer control part. Thus it is possible to qualify the horizontal skip data. Then the processing efficiency of a printer can be more improved with use of the copy modification of the print data together with the copy modification of the skip data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a printing device that uses horizontal skip data, and particularly to a printing device that applies copy modification to the horizontal skip data.

Prior Art and Problems In a printing device such as a Japanese line printer using an electrophotographic method, print data is transferred by a Write command and stored in a page buffer. The usage of Tsutomi is to use the stored print data (original print data) as is, but the function to replace (modify) part of it with other data and print it is a copy of the original print data. called modification. This copy modification greatly simplifies processing when printing multiple copies of a form with only a portion changed.

On the other hand, if there is a blank space (non-printing area) in one line, the conventional method is to fill the blank space with a space code, but with electrophotography (laser printers), the character size is 9 font, 7 font, etc. There are various types such as double angle (there is diversity)
, you have to calculate how much space there is to fill it with spaces, which is cumbersome. Therefore, the present inventors have previously developed a method in which a line is divided by a predetermined number of dots, for example, the number of horizontal dots of one character, and this division is used as an absolute address to specify the number of divisions to be printed. By using this horizontal skip data, which specifies the print position in the digit direction (horizontal direction), you can print by skipping blank areas without filling them with spaces, making it easier to create software and speeding up printing. It also improves. In this case, the above print data and horizontal skip data are treated as a pair, but since conventional copy modification was only considered for print data, when changing horizontal skip data, all data including print data is It is necessary to replace the data bus, which reduces data bus efficiency and processing speed.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to further improve the processing efficiency of a printing device by applying copy modification to horizontal skip data.

Structure of the Invention The present invention provides a printing device that stores print data, copy modification data that changes part of the data, and horizontal skip data that specifies the print position in the digit direction of the print data in a page buffer. It is characterized by using modification data that changes a part of the horizontal skip data, and transferring this from the processing device side in the same way as the copy modification data to print a copy with the printing position of the print data changed. However, this will be explained in detail below with reference to the illustrated embodiment.

Embodiment of the Invention As mentioned above, copy modification prints a copy of print data transferred by a write command and stored in the page buffer, modified to replace part of it with other data. This is a function for FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory diagram thereof, in which CNO is a copy number register, CMB is a copy modification buffer, SCB is a sequence control buffer, PB is a page buffer, and IMG is a print image. The page buffer PB has a memory capacity that can store data for one page or more, and when printing, it stores one page's worth of data and pages (or all pages if there are multiple pages) that are similar to it and therefore require some modification. Partial correction data (referred to as copy modification data) is written. In the figure, the buffer into which copy modification data is written is shown as CBM, which is separate from PB, but in reality, CMB forms a part of PB. Printing is performed after these data are transferred. By the time I finish printing the pages that only require correction,
The data for the next new page (this does not require modification, so all data must be transferred) is sequentially written to the buffer PB from the storage area for line data that is no longer needed after printing is completed, and copy modification is performed on the new page. When writing of the new page data is completed, printing of the new page and its partially corrected page is started.

The copy modification function uses the i, CM (load copy modification) command to transfer copy modification segments as shown in Figure 2 corresponding to each modification part and store them in the copy modification buffer CMB on the page buffer PB. When the text data TXT is also stored in the buffer PB, printing becomes OK. One copy modification segment has a maximum of 260 bytes, and as shown in the figure, 0 to 5 bytes are control data, and 6 to 260 bytes are text data (TXT
). The control data A-F is ``For B copies consecutively starting from the copy number A, use the next text data to fill F bytes from the Eth character of each line for D lines consecutively from the Cth line. Replace J means.

In this case, the number of lines is counted as shown in Figure 3. If there are n lines between the perforations of the paper, 1.
The 2nd line and the n-1 and n lines are print-inhibited areas, and the 3rd to n-2 lines are the copy-modifiable range. FCB is a formant control buffer. If multiple copy modifications are specified for the same location, the last text is valid. Furthermore, all specifications for lines exceeding the printable area of one page are invalid. Furthermore, by specifying a space code (blank code) b to the text data, part of the original print data can be erased.

In the example in Figure 1, the copy number (person in Figure 2) is loaded into the register CNO by another command called LCN (Load Copy Number), and the print image of copy number 2.3.5 is printed as IMG2.1MG3. An example of copy modification to ゜1MG5 is shown. The print data transferred to the computer sofa PB by the Write command is output as is to the print image 1MG4, but in the IMG2, the part corresponding to "list price" is changed to an invoice by the text data TXT. In 1MG3, that part is "reserved", and in addition, 1MG5
It will be changed to "Receipt". In 1MG5, at the same time “5
00 yen" is changed to a space using blank code b. Sequence control Butts 73CB has Load
With the command FOS C1, whether an overlay (frame) is attached to each print image (FF) or not (00) is written. 01 at the top of FF indicates the first sheet (original), and 0
04 in the upper row of 0 indicates the following four copies.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention. P
B is the page buffer mentioned above, and copy modification buffer CH
B is part of it. SEL1 is a character number/memory address selection circuit, 5EL2 is a print data/horizontal step data selection circuit, INC is a memory address/increment circuit, and OUT is an output buffer memory. As shown in FIG. 5, original horizontal skip data and original horizontal skip data are stored as a pair in the page bar sofa PB, as shown in FIG. The reference for print position is the order of absolute addresses A, B, C, . . . , but the horizontal skip data allows print data to be skipped to any print position. The example in Figure 5 is when "A, I, Tsu, Work, O, Power, Ki, Ri" are stored as original print data in the page bar/sofa PB from the 1st to 8th digits. To,
Print position (absolute address) B for the first character “A”
It also instructs to skip to the print position for the second character "I", and instructs to skip to the print position G for the fourth character "G". are doing. 0 of horizontal skip data
indicates to simply increment the print position without skipping.

The copy modification to print data is called print data modification in Fig. 5, which shows an example of modifying the fourth character "K" and the seventh character "K" in the original print data to "S" and "Shi", respectively. . In the present invention, copy modification is applied to horizontal skip data in the same way as copy modification is applied to this print data. Here, this is called horizontal skip data modification.

In the example of FIG. 5, copy modification is applied to the 2nd, 3rd, and 7th character horizontal skip data marked with a circle in the original horizontal skip data. Specifically, the horizontal skip data for the second character is changed from D to 0, that for the third character is changed from 0 to E, and 0 for the seventh character is changed to K.

The resulting modified print output is shown in the bottom row of FIG.

In this example, print data modification is also applied at the same time.

The above-described modification of print data and horizontal skip data can be easily performed by software from the CPU. Moreover, since the modification data transferred from the CPU is local to the part that has been changed, the bus efficiency is much better and the processing time is much shorter than retransferring all the data for one page.

The general operation of FIG. 4 is as follows. In the case of copy modification, first, the original data that becomes the basis for printing is written from the page buffer PB to the memory OUT, and this is output by a printer control section (not shown). At this time, it is determined whether the data is print data or skip data and written to different parts of the same address. If the write data is print data, the memory address is incremented to prepare for writing the next data. However, in the case of horizontal skip data, address increment is not performed. This is because the printing position is specified for the character. Next, in the case of copy modification, the memory address of the memory OUT is selected based on the number of digits of the given character, and the selection circuit 5EL2 selects whether the modification content is print data or horizontal skip data.
, and then change the contents of sled OUT. Next, by outputting this memory content by the printer control unit, the fifth
Figure output can be achieved.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to copy the horizontal skip data that specifies the print position of print data, so it is possible to copy multiple copies of the same print data by changing only the print position. The lotus efficiency has been improved, and the CP
There is an advantage that the processing time of U is shortened. In particular, if it is used in combination with copy modification for print data, its efficiency becomes even more remarkable.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is an explanatory diagram of copy modification for print data, Figure 2
The figure is an explanatory diagram of the copy modification segment, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of how to count the number of lines, Fig. 4 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 5 is a copy of print data and horizontal skip data. It is an explanatory diagram of modification. In the figure, PB is a page buffer, and CMB is a copy modification buffer. Applicant Fujitsu Limited Representative Patent Attorney Minoru Aoyagi Figure 2 Figure 3 District 4 PU UT

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing device that stores and prints print data, copy modification data that changes part of it, and horizontal skip data that specifies the print position in the digit direction of the print data in a page buffer, a part of the horizontal skip data A printing apparatus characterized in that the printing apparatus uses modification data for changing the print data, transfers the modification data from the processing device side in the same way as the copy modification data, and prints a copy in which the print position of the print data is changed.