JPS5957761A - Printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save the consumption of an ink ribbon by such as arrangement wherein the last print position of each color band of an ink ribbon is memorized, and in printing the next line, the ink ribbon is started from a position next to the memorized position of each color band. CONSTITUTION:In carrying out thermal transfer printing by using an ink ribbon 3 having plural color bands 3A, 3B, 3C, the lastly used position of each color band used for printing a line is memorized, and in printing the next line, the ink ribbon is started from an unused portion next to, or a space of one column provided next to, the lastly used position of each color band.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field of the Invention) The present invention relates to a printer that performs multicolor printing on paper using a ribbon having a plurality of color bands, and particularly relates to a printing method for a thermal transfer type serial printer. .

[Technical background of the invention]

FIG. 1 L1 shows an example of a schematic structure of a conventional thermal transfer type serial printer, and particularly shows details of the printing section, ribbon, and paper. Two rotating shafts 2 are located close to the platen 1 and spaced apart from each other in the longitudinal direction thereof.
are arranged, and a ribbon 3 is wound and suspended around these two rotating wheels 2. A ribbon 3 is pulled from both ends to the two rotating shafts 2 to prevent the ribbon from being wrinkled, and the ribbon 3 is rotated in both left and right directions in order to be wound up. A print head 4 is disposed on the upper surface of the ribbon 3, and the lower end of the print head 4 is connected to a carriage 5.

A guide rail 6 passes through the carriage 5ff, and the carriage 5 is pulled by the piano wire 7 through the guide rail 6 at 7a to move back and forth from side to side. Further, a solenoid 8 is connected to the print head 4 via a spring 9.

This solenoid 8 pushes the print head 4 against the platen 1 when the print head 4 prints, and prevents the print head 4 from being pushed against the platen when sending the ribbon 3 without printing.

Also, paper 1 for printing is placed between platen 1 and ribbon 3.
0 is used as a seed. The print head 4 has 9 in the vertical direction.
There is a heat generation source (not shown) of the dots, and this print head 4fc is moved to the left or (-21 right VC), and the heat generation of the 9 dots j. Blue: I 313, printed by transferring ink of yellow band 5C onto paper 10. F, 4
”, 21J is the print f printed on paper 10 in this way.
It shows f1l, ABC123$ku> is black, DEF? is purple, G1. II*#? is red, 45t;
iiA color, 67, is printed in one color.

Next, an example of a conventional printing method when printing by the thermal transfer type serial printer shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. First, the print head 4 prints the paper 1
Red band 3A of ribbon 3 in order from the left end of 0 to the right
Use i to hit A13CDE Ii' G Li I. The solenoid 8 serves to press the print head 4 against the platen II. On this occasion,
The ribbon 3 is worn out in parts A to 1 in FIG. 3, and the ink in this part peels off and is transferred to the paper 1°, so it cannot be used twice.

Next K, solenoid 8'I4L flow IJ, print head 4
After setting the ribbon 3 free, raise the ribbon 3 including the rotating shaft 2, and allow the print head 4 to print at the position fTj of the ribbon 3 h and color band 3B.
Press the print head 4 against the platen 1.

Then, while moving the print head 4 to the left, Fl(D
Print on paper 10 in the order of C13A. Next, in the same way as above, set the print head 4 completely free, and again print the ribbon 3 yellow/+i.
'i3 After raising the ribbon 3 until it can print at 11t, the print head 4 can be pushed onto the platen.

After doing this, do not move the print head 4 to the right.A
After B Ci printing, the print head 4 is freed. At this time, in one row of JfJjisai 10, red band 3A11 color, total 3B, yellow □ii) 3C color overlap AB
C is black, DEF where the red band 3A and blue band 5B overlap is purple, and G1-1'I is red, and printing of one line is completed. Next, the platen rotates and the paper 10 is fed to the next line. Thereafter, the rotary shaft 2 is rotated to the right, and the ribbon 3 is moved so that the left end of the paper σ month 11 characters 1r'i is in the column next to the position fff 31 in FIG. Ribbon 3 position 3
] The purpose of leaving one column blank is to prevent the ribbon from printing again on top of the previous die-cut printing due to errors in ribbon IT movement. S is made on ribbon 3-F. Now, since the ribbon 3 is new, print 123...7 on the paper ]0 using the same procedure as above for printing AIJC....

In this case as well, it is printed three times in red, blue, and yellow. after that,
Move the paper 10 to the next line and move the ribbon 3. When the print area i'rlt on the left 4f of the paper is in the next column after the digit 1i'f 32 in Figure 3, move the ribbon! Stop ffII and print again on paper 10 *#? ! Print $〈〉,
Depending on the printing section, it is exactly the same as above. In this way, a printing result as shown in FIG. 2 can be obtained.

In the above printing operation, the piano wire 7 is pulled left or right by a step motor (not shown) to move the "l:=1" character head 4 left or right, and the moving distance is determined by the pulse of the step motor (not shown). The total is exactly 3-γ from the numbers. When moving the ribbon 3, the current of the solenoid 8 is cut off to leave the print head 4 in a free state where it is not pressed against the platen 1, and the rotating shaft 2 is rotated to the right or left to move the ribbon 3. In addition, since the ribbon moving distance j1F is rotated by a step motor of rotation @12, it is possible to move the ribbon to the front seat to a considerable extent by 1kI.
J is now possible. In addition, the position indicated by the reference numeral 33 in FIG. 3 is the printing start position of this ribbon 3.

[Background Art Issue 1] In the conventional printing method, the number of characters or figure printing distance to be printed in one line is different for each color of the ribbon 3, so the distance from which one more character is printed among the three colors is Printing of the next line begins.

Therefore, as shown in the yellow color 173C in Figure 3, the light color [0
Even if no characters are printed, ribbon 3 is the most printed red color ii
? Since the ribbon 3 is sent by a distance 34 of 3 A when printing the next line, there is a drawback that the ribbon 3 is not effectively used and a large amount of ribbon is consumed.

[Purpose of the invention]

In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks, an object of the present invention is to effectively utilize each color band of the ribbon to reduce the consumption of ribbon for one printing chamber by 11 (
The object of the present invention is to provide a printing method that reduces printing costs.

[Summary of the Invention] The present invention provides a printing method for performing multi-color printing on paper using a ribbon having a color of α number 11Y. If the number of prints for a certain color band in the previous line is small, the corresponding color '+i' is printed after leaving a space in the specified column without leaving a space in this color band.
By continuing to print I, all of the above objectives are achieved.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings, using the same reference numerals as in the conventional example.

FIG. 4 shows l-:
It is a figure which shows the printed shape DD of the ribbon which is 1J-shaped. The printing means prints using the thermal transfer type serial printer described in the conventional example, and since its structure and general operation are almost the same, illustrations and explanations will be omitted, and only the main points will be explained. Now, in red band 3A of ribbon 3, Al1.
. . . Then, after raising the ribbon 3 so that the U color band 3B of the ribbon 3 can be printed, send the print head in the opposite direction and print on the lines (F I', D CB A). Next, raise the ribbon 3 again so that the yellow band 3C of the ribbon 3 can be used, and print A I3 C from left to right with the print head.

At this time, the extent to which each color band 3A, 3B, and 3C of the ribbon 3 has been used is stored in a memory provided in the control device of the thermal transfer type serial printer. As a result, the characters 1234567 to be printed on the next line of paper are
How much is each color band 3A, 3B, 3C of ribbon 3?
You can know whether to print from N7. That is,
After printing ABC on the yellow band 3C of the ribbon 3, the part indicated by the symbol 41 in Figure 4 is skipped one carano, and the printing of 123... on the next line is printed on the yellow band 3C of the ribbon 3. When the print head is fully used, it prints 12345 while moving the ribbon 3 to the left by the distance of the 4-force ram at [1't].

Next, the ribbon 3 is moved three columns to the left from the current printing position fiT5, and the print head is moved two columns to the right.

From this point 11゛j to Ribbon 3's IV color'+i/ 313
Use 2 to print the character 7654321 from 4 to the left of the print head: il:J) l. Next, move the ribbon 3 to the left by 3 force rams until the ribbon is fully located at the I゛11 position.
' Print 123 while moving it to IJ. Next, the ribbon is fed by iX to the next line, and the ribbon 3 is moved 4 columns to the left, and the print head waits until it reaches the left end printing position of all the sheets. After doing this, use the red band 3A' of ribbon 3 to move the print head to the right *#? ! Print $n〈, then move the ribbon 3 two columns to the right, and press this point ii
't, the print head is moved from left to right using H color band 5 to print <>$iK. Next, the ribbon 3 is moved 5 columns to the right, and using the yellow belt 3Ct of the ribbon 3, the print head is moved to the right and the entire $<> is printed.

In addition, the reference numeral 42 in the figure indicates the printing start point, and the reference numerals 43 to 50
indicates the free space for one force ram, and the symbol 51.52 indicates the unused t11s of the saved ribbon.

According to this embodiment, each color of the ribbon 3'+'I) 3 A
, 313, 3C, even if there is a space for one ram for each line, compared to the conventional method, each color band of the ribbon is used continuously for printing without any space, and the ribbon 3 is used effectively. ribbon consumption can be significantly reduced. In the above embodiment, printing of one line was described in terms of consecutive J, l, l, combinations, but for example,
1. ODE... Even if there is a space in the middle of printing and there is a column that is not printed, the ribbon 3 is moved in the same direction as the printing direction by the space (mJ = b) and then the rest of that line is printed. shall be.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the pond of the present invention.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, for example, the red band 3 of the ribbon 3
Colors A and blue band 5B are printed in large quantities, and yellow band 3C (d
If there is almost no printing, the red □it' of ribbon 3
The distance between the last position used by the print head of I3 A and h color '1'i313 and the last position consumed by the print head of yellow band 3C of ribbon 3 is too large. become. In such cases, sometimes yellow □:W
When printing with 3C, it takes time to feed the ribbon 3 due to the ribbon alignment, and furthermore, when printing with the yellow band 3C, it takes a long time to feed the ribbon 3, and when returning to the v-work red □iff 3A or blue band 313 after printing the letter IJ with the yellow band 3C Also, since the ribbon 3 place is 11L, the ribbon feeding [7 intervals will take 3X hours. Moreover, red belt 3A
Or, after finishing Jt color band 4Bi1, even if it is yellow':
Even if 'tk 3 C is left over and printing is possible, it is no longer possible to use this ribbon 3. In this way, in the previous example, the difference in the degree of use of each color '+i'f became too large. In this case, the main idea of making effective use of ribbon 3 is unclear. Therefore, in this embodiment shown in FIG. 5, a printing method as described below is used. In other words, move a certain row to ribbon 3.
Each color 1) ¥3A, 3B.

When printing using 3C, as shown in the figure, if the red band 3A is used up to the mark 51 and the consumption of the other color bands 3B and 3C is less than this, the blue band 3B is used to print characters in the next line. 123・
When printing . . ., this color band 3B is from the tilt of the 51st position of the above a-. There is a part that is not yet used in the iiJ part, and the position is returned to the 615th minute, which is two columns before the code 51. Print head power ball 123"fr: starts printing. In this case, there are exactly 2 columns empty, so blue band 3B
will print A B CD and M Ii' on the previous line, and then print 1234567 on the next line via the space 52 for one input ram. Next, use the yellow band 3C to create the letter 12.
345i The station to be printed in this line is the character 12345t- printed by going back two columns to the part before the code 51 digit 1a, but in this case there will be a blank space as shown by the code 53, but in this implementation In the example, this is not printed. Now, in the printing of the first line, the blue color 11 was consumed the most in the printing of the previous line.
The y3B place ti254 is the standard. That is, in this row, the three red belts have exactly 1 and (from the column next to 54 *#?
etc. are printed, and in yellow belt 3C, it is printed from the position 1?254 back to the front of the 1st power ram.

In the method of this embodiment, the printing of the first line is 1ii
This is the printing position of the maximum consumed color band in the printing of line J).

Other colors'i! If there is a portion that is not consumed in y, the maximum is 2
It is designed to print by going back to the previous column. Note that codes 51.52.54 to 59.62 leave one column empty, JJ-'F53 indicates unused space, and code 60.6
1 is the unused it of the ribbon 3 which is saved compared to the conventional ρl
It is shown in s'.

According to this embodiment, if there is a color band that has not been consumed, printing is performed by returning to the front by a maximum of two columns.

Although the embodiment shown in FIG. 3 is different, it is possible to reduce the amount of ribbon consumed compared to the conventional example, and in this embodiment, the number of printed characters in each color band is
Even if there is a variation in the color band, there is a space that is not consumed as shown by the reference numeral 53 in Fig. 4, so the consumption rate of each color band differs greatly at the highest fa of the ribbon, and the ribbon feeding time takes a large amount of time. The disadvantages of the previous embodiment can be eliminated.

In addition, both the embodiments shown in the Lt4 diagram and FIG.
3 to 50 and 51, 52, and 54 to 59.62, a space for one force ram was added, but depending on the ribbon feeding accuracy, this is not necessary. Furthermore, although both of the above embodiments have been explained based on a bidirectional printing method using a thermal transfer serial printer shown in FIG. The fruit 7i [i? Needless to say, it is possible to realize lJ. Furthermore, even when using a single color ribbon, the amount of ribbon consumed can be reduced by printing in both directions with a serial printer, since the total number of printed characters is 1γ. In addition, in the thermal transfer type serial printer shown in FIG.
Although the ribbon 3 and the ribbon 3 were attached to the same carriage 5, the ribbon 3 was not fed while the print head 4 was printing in order to finish the transfer normally. However, in the cassette ribbon method, the ribbon 3 is attached to the print head 4 and carriage 5, and when the print head 4 moves, the relative speed between the ribbon 3 self-sprouting and the paper 10 must be set to 4, and the ribbon 3 is attached to the print head 4 and the carriage 5. It is necessary to feed the ribbon in the opposite direction to the traveling direction of the head 4 and so that the ribbon ≧11 degrees and the head speed are the same. In the method shown in FIG. 1, it does not matter whether or not the ribbon is fed during printing. Further, although a serial printer has been described here, the present invention can also be applied to a printing method using an 1-slice line head. That is, in this method, the ribbon of paper 'l'+'11 is fed upward and downward.

Recognize the column or +tji, 4 printed in a certain line I
A device u2 for Q is provided, and when character 111 is on the next line, the entire ribbon area that has not been printed before the previous line is i'iTh 1. If you find it based on the data of u device I7, feed the ribbon downward to use the unused ribbon area, and return the ribbon upward again to complete the printing of the next line,
Ribbon consumption can be completely reduced.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the printing method of IA Ming, the ribbon can be used effectively by eliminating or reducing the wasted space that is not used for the F11 characters in each color band of the ribbon. It has the effect of reducing consumption.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 shows the diagram of a conventional thermal transfer serial printer.
An explanatory diagram showing an example of the character part, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of printing on paper by the printer of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of printing on paper by the printer of Fig. 1.
7P' of the ribbon when FJJ is made using the 4-noji method
[Figure 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the consumption status of the ribbon when one embodiment of the printing method of the present invention Ic1a is used. Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the consumption status of the ribbon when one embodiment of the printing method of the present invention is used. Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram showing another implementation of the printing method of the present invention. It is an explanatory view showing the consumption state of the ribbon when the direction is applied. 3...Ribbon 3 people...Red belt 3B...
Blue belt 3C...Yellow belt agent Patent attorney
Noriyuki Chika (1 person) Figure 2 10 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] [1] In a printing device in which the print head performs multicolor printing on paper via a ribbon having a plurality of color bands, the print head finishes printing a row using each color of the ribbon. In this case, the final printing position of each color band of the ribbon used for printing in that line is memorized, and 1 from the unused portion following the final printing position td of each color band of the ribbon is stored in 19 of the next line of printing.
A printing method characterized in that printing is performed after positioning the print head and ribbon based on the stored data so that the ribbon can be used from a position spaced by a force ram or continuously. (2) In a printing device in which the print head performs multicolor printing on paper via a ribbon having multiple color bands, when the print head finishes printing a line using each color of the ribbon, the line 1.4. When printing the next line, record the final printing position of each color band of the ribbon used for printing. and other colors, final printing position 11 of li'I
If there is an unused part between 't' and when using the color band, the print head can print from the position where it enters the unused part of the color band in a predetermined column. A printing method characterized in that printing is performed after positioning the print head and ribbon based on the stored data. (3) When entering the designated column into the unused part of the color band,
If there is not enough unused space to penetrate a given number of columns,
Claim 2, characterized in that the column entry is performed by subtracting one column from the predetermined column, and if there is still not enough unused space, printing is started from the position where the column entry is further subtracted by one column. Printing method described.