JPS60115473A - Printing controller - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print characters evenly in a printable region, by a method wherein a printable region is calculated, the number of dots between characters is calculated on the basis of the number of characters in a line and the number of dots for the character and spacings corresponding to the number of dots calculated are provided. CONSTITUTION:A printing-starting position and a printing-finishing position set by a printable region setting part 7 are detected by a printable region detecting part 8, and the number of dots in the printable region is determined. The number of dots between characters is calculated on the basis of values from a digit place number register 9 for storing the number of characters in a line and a character dot register 10 for storing the number of dots for a character and on the number of dots in the printable region, and is held in a printing-controlling part 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a printing control device for a printing device or the like that prints one character as a pattern of m x n dots.

Conventional Structure and Problems Conventionally, when printing a document created using a word processor or the like, the following methods have been used. Hereinafter, a conventional example will be explained using FIG. 1.

Set the number of characters (number of digits) per line, then set the number of characters from the left to start printing (left printing margin), and the number of dots (or digits) between characters (character spacing). After setting the number of inches (inches) to be opened using the keyboard, a print command is given to a character processing device such as a word processor. The host CPU in the word processor sends data 402 for the number of dots between characters 3 to the print control unit 4. Next, for print buffer 6,
Character code data 601 of one line including the left margin is sent. The print control section 4 takes out the character code one character at a time from the print buffer 6, prints it, and then issues a command to the print head drive section 3 to move the print head 1 by the amount of the inter-character dots that have already been sent out.

Repeat this until all character codes in the print buffer are printed.

According to the method described above, whether or not the print result is as expected, that is, whether or not it can be printed correctly in the position desired by the user depends on the completion of printing at least one line. Until then, the paper could not be checked until it had been printed, causing problems such as it being too far to the left, too far to the right, and sometimes the right edge protruding from the paper to be printed.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a print control device that can reduce printing errors and print characters evenly during arbitrary printing. , a detection unit that detects the printable area, a digit number register that stores the number of characters per line, a character dot register that stores the number of dots in one character, and a printable area dot length;
- A printing control device that is equipped with a means for calculating the number of dots between characters based on the number of characters per line and the number of dots per character, and it takes the space between characters by the calculated number of dots and distributes the characters evenly in the printable area. It can be controlled to print on

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

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a printing device in an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, a printable area setting section 7 sets a printing start position and a printing end position with respect to the printing direction of the printing device. Reference numeral 8 denotes a printable area detection unit, which detects how many dots the set printable area is from the print start position and print end position set by the printable area setting unit 7. 9 is the number of digits register, which is a 6-bit register sent from an external device (host CPU, etc.).
A value indicating the number of characters per line is stored.

1o is a character dot register, which stores information indicating how many dots the current character configuration of the printing device is made up in the vertical and horizontal directions. 1 is the print head, 11 is the print head 1
4 is a print control section, 3 is a print head drive control section, 6 is a print buffer memory, and 5 is a character generator.

The operation of the printing device configured as described above will be explained below.

First, after setting up the printing paper, manually move the printable area setting section 7 left and right to determine where to start printing and to which position in the width direction of the printing paper. Set. The printable area detection unit 2 detects the print start position and print end position set by the printable area setting unit 7, converts the position information into dots based on the leftmost position of the print head, and converts the position information into dot units, each of which is a Dot 9b is held as a dot. The number of characters per line 901, which is one of the print format information of the document to be printed from an external device (host CPU, etc.), is set in the number of digits register 9.

The print control unit 4 determines the total number of print dots per line nx from the value n of the character dot register 1° and the value C of the number of digits register 9.
c is calculated, and compared with the number of printable dots b - a, which is the difference between the printing limit position d and the number mark and the start position d held by the printable area detection section, b - a (If nXc, it is assumed that printing is not possible.) CP outputs a signal 401 indicating that printing is not possible to U.

If b - a ≧ n (a+1) 142 dots is the right edge printing margin, f=(b-a-nxc) mod (,c+1)-e
Hold the dot as the left edge printing margin.

Next, when the print data 601 for one line is stored in the print buffer 6 by the CPU (host), the print control unit 47 moves the print head 5 to the right by, for example, a + f dots from the left end. A command is given to the drive unit 3.

After that, the movement of the d-dot characters and the printing of each character (n dots) of the print code stored in the print buffer 6 are repeated alternately until all the character codes in the print buffer 6 have been printed. .

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, when the number of digits per line is input from the host cPU, it is detected whether or not printing can be performed as desired by the user, and the user It becomes possible to start printing from the desired print position and print characters evenly in the desired white area, resulting in very beautiful printing.

This also reduces the user's anxiety of not knowing the results until they are printed, and at the same time eliminates wasted paper due to printing errors.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a print control device used in a conventional word processor or the like, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a print control device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 7... Printable area setting section, 8... Printable area detection section, 9... Digit number register, 1o...
...Character dot register. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and 1 other person 1st
Figure 2

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A digit register that stores the number of characters per line, a printable area setting section that sets the printing start position and printing end position in the width direction of the paper, and the printing that is set by the printable area setting section. a printable area detection unit that detects the start position and print end position; a character dot register that stores the number of dots in one character; and a print start position and print end position detected by the printable area detection unit, and the digits. means for calculating the number of dots between characters based on the value stored in the number register and the value stored in the character dot register, and controls the drive of the print head to create a space between characters by the calculated number of dots. A printing control device characterized by: (2) The means for calculating the number of dots between characters compares the dot length of the printable area with the product of the value stored in the number of digits register and the value stored in the character dot register, and calculates the dot length of the printable 2-vane area. 2. The printing control device according to claim 1, wherein the printing control device outputs a signal indicating that printing is not possible when is small.