JPS60151063A - Printing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To arbitrarily perform both lateral and vertical writings with a simple circuit configuration by providing a buffer memory for storing at least one character, and sequentially reading out the character pattern stored in the buffer memory in accordance with a printing direction switching signal in parallel with the vertical or lateral direction to apply it to a print head. CONSTITUTION:When a character generator 8 outputs a character pattern, a print controller 6 reads out the pattern synchronously with the output operation of the generator 8 by a control signal S2 of the controller 6 in a buffer memory 9. This buffering process is executed by utilizing blank time between characters in the time flow of the pattern. Then, the controller 6 reads out the pattern read out in the memory 9 synchronously with a head feeder 5 by a control signal S2. In this control, the moving speed of the head 3 and the reading speed of the memory 9 are kept corresponded to each other. The above control is repeated at every one character to print the character, and when the memory 9 is in elevational parallel output mode, lateral writing print is performed, while in lateral parallel output mode, vertical writing print is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dot matrix serial printing device used in Japanese word processors, and more particularly to a printing device that performs both horizontal and vertical printing.

<Prior art and its problems> In this type of dot matrix serial printing device, as shown in FIG. 1(A), the printing paper 1 is fed line by line in the direction of arrow a, print head 2
Printing is performed while feeding the paper in a horizontal direction perpendicular to the paper feeding direction. The print head 2 has a print needle row 3 in which a large number of needles are arranged vertically, and records characters in a dot pattern on paper using an impact method, a thermal method, an electrostatic method, or the like.

A large number of character patterns are expressed, for example, as a 24×24 dot matrix, and are stored in a ROM called a character generator. A certain character Q dot pattern is outputted in parallel one row at a time from the character generator, and the printing 21 dot pattern 3 is driven by this signal. Further, the print head 2 is fed in synchronization with the output operation of the character generator.

Generally speaking, as shown in FIG. 1(A), the horizontal v'1! ! It is printed in the direction. However, in Japanese word glossaries, etc., there is a strong demand for printing in the vertical writing direction as shown in Figure 1 (B) using the same printer 411.

With conventional printing devices that can print both horizontally and vertically, horizontal v1! In addition to a character generator that stored regular character patterns for printing, there was also a character generator that stored all horizontal character patterns tilted 90 degrees for vertical printing, and these could be used depending on the printing direction. .

In this configuration, since two types of character generators are used, the capacity of the ROM as a character generator is required to be twice the normal capacity.
However, the circuit size is large and the device is expensive.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to provide a dot matrix serial type printing device that can arbitrarily perform both horizontal and vertical printing using a simple and inexpensive circuit configuration. be.

<Configuration and Effects of the Invention> In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a backup memory for storing at least one character of a character pattern output from a character generator, and a character pattern stored in this buffer memory. A control means is provided to sequentially read out vertically parallel or horizontally parallel 0 and apply it to the print head according to a printing direction switching signal, and by switching the reading direction by this control means, horizontal writing printing and vertical t1a printing are selectively performed. It is characterized by having been configured.

According to this configuration, by adding an extremely small capacity buffer memory and a simple control circuit, it is possible to perform both horizontal writing and vertical printing with just one type of character generator. The cost of this equipment can be significantly reduced.

<Description of Embodiment> FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Sequence control, synchronization control, etc. of each part of this apparatus are performed in an integrated manner by a printing control section 6. The paper feeding section 4 feeds the printing paper 1 line by line in the vertical direction a. The print head 2 has a print needle row 3 in which 24 needles are arranged vertically, and is moved horizontally by a head feed fM55.

The character generator 8 stores a large number of character patterns expressed in a 24x240 dot matrix. The character code from the decoding section 7 serves as a read address signal to the character generator 8, and a character pattern corresponding to the character code is output from the character generator 8 and stored in the buffer memory 9.

Buffer memory 9 has a capacity of 24 x 24 = 576 bits and stores a dot pattern for one character. Specifically, this buffer memory 9 is composed of a shift register capable of both serial shift and parallel shift, and stores a 24×24 dot pattern in one vertical column of 24.
It is possible to read out the dots one by one in parallel (the output is the vertical parallel output Sv), and it is also possible to read out the 24 x 24 dot pattern in parallel in one horizontal row of 24 dots (the output is the horizontal parallel output Sv). SH). Reading control of the buffer memory 9 is performed by a control signal S2 from the print control section 6.

= 4- The vertical parallel output SV or the horizontal parallel output SH of the buffer memory 9 is input to a driver 11 via a switching circuit 10, and each needle of the print head 2 is driven by this driver 11.

Prior to character information to be printed, the host computer provides command information as to whether to print horizontally or vertically. The command information is decoded by the decoding section T, becomes a printing direction switching signal 81, and is inputted to the printing control section 6 and the switching circuit 10.

Signal S1 is horizontal I11! If it is a print command, the print control unit 6
sets the buffer memory 9 to the vertical parallel output mode, and the switching circuit 10 connects the vertical parallel output Sv to the driver 11. On the other hand, if the signal S2 is a vertical writing print command, the print control unit 6 sets the backup memory 9 to the horizontal parallel output mode, and the switching circuit 10 connects the horizontal parallel output SH to the driver 11.

After that, print character information is given one after another from the host computer, and this is converted into a character code in the decoding section 7.
The character generator 8 outputs character patterns one after another at predetermined intervals, and the character patterns are stored in the buffer memory 9. Switching circuit 10. It is supplied to the print head 2 via the driver 11, and characters are formed on the paper 1 in a dot pattern.

The operation during this time will be explained in detail. The character generator 8 outputs a character pattern of 24 dots per row, and at this time, the print control unit 6 reads the character pattern into the buffer memory 9 in synchronization with the output operation of the character generator 8 using the control signal S2. . This buffering process is performed by using the character amount blank time in the temporal flow of character patterns that are given one after another. For example, one character is 24x24 dots.

When the character spacing is 3 dots and the printing speed is 100 characters/sec, the character amount blank time is approximately 1.1 m5ec.

If this amount of time is available, even if the buffer memory 9 is constructed using a normal shift register, data for one character of 24×24 dots can be easily read.

Next, the print control section 6 reads out the character pattern read into the buffer memory 9 in synchronization with the head feeding section 5 in response to the control signal S2 (the reading direction is set as described above). In this control, the moving speed of the print head 3 and the reading speed of the buffer memory 9 are correlated.

The above control is repeated for each character to perform printing. If the buffer memory 9 is in the vertical parallel output mode, horizontal printing is performed as shown in FIG. 1(A), and when it is in the horizontal parallel output mode, vertical writing is performed as shown in FIG. 1CB).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of horizontal printing (A) and vertical printing (B), and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Print paper, 2...Print head, 3...Print needle row, 6...Print control section, 8...Character generator, 9...Buffer memory, 10...Switching circuit. Patent applicant Tateishi Electric Co., Ltd. Agent Patent attorney Tetsuji Iwakura (1 other person)

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A character generator that stores a large number of character patterns expressed in a dot matrix, a buffer memory that stores at least one character of the character pattern output from this character generator, and characters stored in this buffer memory. A control means for sequentially reading out patterns in vertical parallel or horizontal parallel Q according to a print direction switching signal, and a print head for forming dot pattern characters in response to the vertical parallel output or the horizontal parallel output of the buffer memory. A printing device comprising: a printing device configured to selectively perform horizontal writing printing and vertical writing printing by switching the reading direction by the control means.