JPS6027552A - Printing system for dot printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To simplify the construction of the equipment by generating second dot matrix patterns for filling gaps between dots by an algorithm from fundamental dot matrix patterns to synthesize and edit them. CONSTITUTION:When control data and printing data are initially received from an interface on a program stored in a ROMa2, a CPU1 addresses them and reads in a character dot pattern from a ROMb3. When the control data specify the printing of a high quality printing, the character dot pattern read in from the ROMb3 is edited according to a conversion algorithm and a printing is performed based on an editing data. The head 5 composed of seven wires first prints dots on the rows r1-r7 with the first spacing and then dots on the rows r1'-r6' with the second spacing by doing a line feed of the printing paper by 1/2 dot upward or lowing the printing head 5 by 1/2 dot. Thus, a high quality printing is accomplished.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a high-quality printing method for a dot printer that prints characters, symbols, etc. using a collection of dots.

[Prior art]

Below, the high-quality printing method of a conventional dot printer will be explained based on the dot pattern shown in the figure, and its drawbacks will also be discussed.

Figure 1 (a) is the conventional basic dot pattern, Figure 1 (b)
.

2(c) shows a high printing quality pattern, FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) show two different printing patterns, and FIG. 2(c) shows a high printing quality pattern. The number 4 is used as an example.

The first method is to increase the number of wires in the print head and arrange them in a staggered pattern to create a high-density dot configuration, but this method provides high print quality but has the disadvantage that the device configuration and control are complicated. This also has the disadvantage of making the device expensive.

The second method is to print the basic pattern shown in Figure 1(a) with a slight horizontal shift as shown in Figure 1(b), and the basic pattern shown in Figure 1(C). There is a method in which printing is performed by slightly shifting the pattern in the vertical direction, but this method is simple and the device is inexpensive, but it has the disadvantage of poor printing quality.

As a third method, the pattern shown in FIG. 2(a) and the pattern shown in FIG.
There is also a method to obtain high-quality printing as shown in figure (c) by slightly shifting two different butter/printers in the vertical direction as shown in the pattern shown in b), but in this method, the character pattern Since it has a separate memory, the memory capacity increases and it becomes expensive.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention aims to solve the conventional drawbacks by providing a high-quality printing method using an inexpensive dot printer with a small memory capacity for character pattern generation.

[Structure of the invention]

The structure of the present invention is as follows.

A second dot matrix pattern is generated from the basic dot matrix pattern using a simple algorithm to fill in the gaps between the dots of the basic dot matrix pattern, and the basic dot matrix pattern and the second dot matrix pattern are synthesized. The object is to obtain high-quality printing by editing and printing the synthesized and edited dot matrix pattern.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings, and its effects will be described.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. sb, 1 is a microprocessor (hereinafter referred to as CPU) that controls the printer, and 2 is a read-only memory (hereinafter referred to as CPU) that stores a program. (referred to as ROMa),
3 is a read-only memory (hereinafter referred to as ROMb) that stores dot patterns such as characters and symbols, and 4 is a CPU.
I10 driver driven by commands from 1, 5 is I
10 with the print head connected to driver 4 ;h'),
The I10 driver 4 also has an L for printing paper line feed (not shown).
The F motor is connected to an SP motor for spacing that moves the print head in the printing direction, and an interface unit that takes in print data from the outside. 6 is a pass line connecting each component.

In this way, printing by a device with a circuit configuration is performed by the CPU
1 receives control data and print data (character code) from the program interface stored in RQMa2. When the print data is received, a character dot pattern is read from the ROMb3 using it as an address. Here, if the control data specifies high-quality printing, the character dot pattern read from ROMb3 is edited by a conversion algorithm, and printing is performed based on the edited data.

Next, we will discuss the conversion algorithm for achieving high print quality based on Figure 4. Figures 4 (a) to (h) show conversion of various basic patterns by the algorithm, and the dots marked with ○ are from ROMb3. The read dot data (d) is RO on the grid.
This indicates that there is no dot data read from Mb3, and is the dot data to be interpolated.

Next, examples of printing by the above conversion algorithm are shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 using the number 4 as an example.

FIG. 5 shows a basic pattern, and this pattern is ROMb
Read from 3. In addition, here, the vertical direction is 70-(rl~r?
), the character pattern consists of nine horizontal columns (cl-c9).

FIG. 6 shows a print pattern obtained by printing a second pattern edited by the conversion algorithm shown in FIG. 4 above on the basic pattern shown in FIG. 5. As shown in the figure, al xal
l is an interpolated dot according to the conversion shown in FIG. 4(a), b1 to ba
+ is an interpolated dot according to the conversion shown in FIG. 4(b), el to e5
is an interpolated dot obtained by the conversion shown in FIG. 4(e), and hl is an interpolated dot obtained by the conversion shown in FIG. 4(h).

This printing of the number 4 is performed by the above-mentioned head 5 shown in FIG. The head 5 is composed of seven wires. First, in the first spacing (one pass), the rows r1 to r7 shown in FIG.
After printing the above dots, either move the printing paper upwards by dots or move the print head 5 downwards by η dots to print the second spacing rl''r61 dots shown in Figure 6. As shown in the figure, high-quality printing is performed.

Printing that fills in the gaps in this basic pattern is performed based on interpolated data by a conversion algorithm.

Next, we will discuss the generation and printing operation of this interpolation data in the seventh section.
This will be explained based on FIGS.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of conversion processing for integer columns, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart of conversion processing for cases other than integer columns.

In the figure, 01 to c9 shown in Figure 6 above are integer columns, and when Rn, Rn-1, and Rn+4 are integer columns, the print progression is the print data of the column, the print data of the previous column, and the print data of the next column. This is a register that stores the print data of the column. However, for columns other than integer columns (columns cl' to c8' shown in Figure 6), the print data of the column 1/4 dot after the column to be printed, the print data of the column 1/4 dot before, and 3/4 Stores the print data of the column after the dot. Ra-Rd and Rx=Rz are general-purpose registers, Rx is a register that stores print data 174 dots ago, and A is an accumulator. Indicating each operation is logical product, + is logical sum, x2 is a 1-bit shift up, x172 is a 1-bit shift down, and - is a congruence. ■～◎ are the numbers of each step.

Now, we will start to explain the printing operation.
Additional explanations will be provided for all figures and figures 6 as necessary.

The operation is such that the sp motor shown in FIG.
1 is given.

The CPU 1 reads the print data of the column to be printed and the next column from the ROMb3 using the above character code and column number as an address and registers Rn.

Store in Rn41. At this time, 0 is stored in register Rn-1.

After this storage, the conversion process shown in FIG. 7 begins. First, in step (2), it is determined whether it is the first bus.

If it is the first pass, the process of step (2) is performed, and interpolation of the colors shown in FIG. 4 is performed.

In this step (2), the next print data is read from the ROMb3 and stored in the register Rn+1.

Printing is performed from this state. This is done by feeding the data in the accumulator A to the print head 5, and when the printing of one integer column is completed, the process moves to the next integer column, and so on, repeating steps ① and ② to print one character. This is illustrated in FIG. 5 above. -Printing will be on r1 to r7. In this way, when the printing of 11 characters is completed, the CPUI receives the next character code and performs the same process as described above.
Prints a line. This is similar to the row r illustrated in Fig. 5.
This is the state in which all rows r1 to r7 have been printed over one line. In this way, after printing rows r1 to r7 for one line, move the printing paper upwards with a 1/2 dot line feed or printing. The head 5 is lowered by 1/2 dot, and at the same time, the print head 5 is returned to the first character printing position in that line and printing begins for the second pass.

First, as above, registers Rn, Rn-1r Rn
The print data is stored in +1 and the conversion process begins.

Step ■ is the second pass, so here we proceed to step ■. In step ■, it is determined whether it is an integer column or a non-integer column, and if it is an integer column, step ■ is entered.

Step (2) is a process of creating the interpolated data shown in FIG. 4(a).

Step ■ is the process of creating the interpolated data shown in Figures 4(C) and (d), and Step ■ is the process of creating the interpolated data shown in Figures 4(c) and (d).
Step ■ Only when there is no data in the bit indicated by :;
Effectively processes the interpolated data, step ① is shown in Figure 4 (g)
and (h) processing for correction (processing for interpolating a dot at the midpoint when a triangle is formed by three dots), step ① is an editing process and is 1/4
The row printed before the dot is not printed. Step (2) is a preparation process for the next column.

The above is the processing for the integer column shown in FIG. 7, and the conversion processing for cases other than the integer column shown in FIG. 8 is added to this.

The steps [phases] in FIG. 8 are shown in FIGS. 4(e) and (f).
), the process of creating interpolated data, step ■, is shown in Figure 4 (
, ) and (f), the process of validating the interpolation data of step 0 only when there is no data in the pits indicated by ・:),
Step [stock] is an editing process similar to step (2) in FIG. 7, and step (2) is also a preparation process similar to step (2) in FIG.

This second pass printing is performed by supplying the data of the accumulator A determined in the editing process of step (2) and step O to the print head 5.

Based on this, when printing of one column is completed, the process moves to the next column and repeats the process from step ① to finish printing of one character. This is the row r1' illustrated in FIG. 6 above.
~r 6/ will be printed. In this manner, when the printing of one character is completed, the CPU 1 receives a new character code for the next character and repeats the above-described process, thus completing the printing of one line. This is the roller r shown in Figure 6.
When all one line of lines 1' to r6' has been printed, the printing of the algorithm conversion process for that line, that is, the high-quality printing is completed.

Thereafter, a line feed for one line is performed, and the print head 5 is returned to the printing start position, and the printing operation for the next line begins.

In the above embodiment, the conversion processing is performed at a slow printing speed of the printer, but if the printing speed of the printer is fast, a buffer memory can be connected to the pass line 6 in Fig. 3 to perform the entire editing process before the printing operation. If the print data is stored in the buffer memory and the print data is read out from the core buffer memory and printed at the time of printing, high-speed printing with the same effect can be achieved.

The conversion process in this case is the same as in the above embodiment except that the editing results of step 2 in FIG. 7 and the editing results of step 2 and step 00 in FIGS. At the time of printing, it is sufficient to read out the print data of the first bus and the print data of the second pass from distinct areas of the buffer memory.

Further, although the present embodiment has been described using a dot matrix of 7 vertical by 9 horizontal, the present invention is not limited to this, and the present invention can be implemented on a basic dot matrix of any dot matrix configuration. A dot pattern with high print quality can be obtained with a small memory capacity.

For example, the number of characters used in a normal printer is approximately 256 alphabets, numbers, symbols, and kana characters, and if the printer has a dot pattern for high print quality, each character is If there are two patterns and a nine column configuration, 256X2X9=4608 bytes of memory will be required. According to the present invention, this can be made into a conversion program of about 200 bytes.

It goes without saying that the present invention can be used not only for printers but also for display devices and the like. Even for printers that have a function of registering character dot patterns from an external device into the random access memory (RAM) of the printer, the present invention can be applied from the registered basic pattern, and character patterns can be printed with high print quality. be able to.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above in detail, in the present invention, a second dot matrix pattern is generated from the basic dot matrix pattern of a dot printer through conversion processing using an algorithm, and the second matrix pattern is created to fill gaps in the basic dot matrix pattern. Since this printing method uses a composite editing method, it is possible to achieve the following effects as a dot printer that achieves high print quality.

Compared to the conventional method of increasing the number of wires in the head, this has a simpler device configuration and has the effect of providing an inexpensive device.

Furthermore, compared to the conventional method of printing the same pattern twice with a slight shift, high printing quality is ensured and there is an effect of improving the p-high printing quality.

Moreover, compared to the conventional method of printing different patterns slightly shifted from each other, this method has the effect of drastically reducing memory capacity.

As described above, the present invention, which can provide a simple and inexpensive dot printer with high print quality, can be used not only for dot printers but also for printers that perform high print quality from registered basic patterns, and can also be used for display devices.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 (a) is the conventional basic dot pattern, Figure 1 (b)
. (c) is the conventional high print quality pattern, Figure 2 (a) #
(b) shows two different conventional printing patterns;
c) is a conventional high print quality pattern, FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4(&) to (h) are conversion processing diagrams using algorithms for various basic patterns. , FIG. 5 is a basic pattern diagram, FIG. 6 is an algorithm conversion process diagram, FIG. 7 is a flowchart of conversion process for integer columns, and FIG. 8 is a flowchart of conversion process for cases other than aligned columns. 1-CPU 2=-ROMa 3・=ROMb 4=I
/. Driver 5...Print head 6...Passline patent applicant Takashi Kanakura, patent attorney representing Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. ) (() Ring 3- 3 Beard 4- Female 51 (a) 8-Satoru (b) CO-(1@) (C) 59-β (d) Out-Ryo (g) (Eg-Ao (h) &- product 1 dot 1 dot printing Written procedure amendment (voluntary) May 25, 1980 Kazuo Wakasugi, Commissioner of the Japan Patent Office Toshiro 1. Indication of the case 1983 Patent Application No. 135228 2. Name of the invention Printing method of dot printer 3. Relationship with the case of the person making the amendment Patent applicant address 1-7-12 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Name (
029) Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Representative Minami Hashimoto - Umao 4, Agent 5, Date of amendment order (voluntary) 6° M Correct (7) *, t Elephant Detailed explanation of the invention in the specification 57- (Drawing 86 Amendment details 1, Specification, page 4, line 6 [Redo-only memo January is corrected to read "Read-only memory". 2, Specification, page 6, line 11, "Spacing "Fig. 6" is corrected to "Fig. 6 by spacing." 3. On page 7, line 9 of the specification, "and Rx - Rz" is corrected to "and R~Rz is." 4. On page 8 of the specification, at the end of line 20, replace the phrase ``Character code'' with ``
Correct the character code. 5. Revise Figure 1(b), Figure 2(, ), Figure 6, Figure 7, and Figure 8 as attached. CI' Q! 'C3-C4C3C6-(?-C8゜Printing procedure amendment (1 vision) July 26, 1980 Mr. Manabu Shiga, Commissioner of the Patent Office 1, Indication of the case 1982 Patent application No. 135228 2, Title of the invention Dot printer Printing method 3, relationship with the case of the person making the amendment Patent applicant address 1-7-12 Toramon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Name (
029> Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Representative Nankai Hashimoto 4, Agent 5, Date of amendment order Voluntary 6, Subject of amendment Specification "Detailed description of the invention column". 7. Contents of amendment 1: In the specification, page 6, line 8, page 8, line 18, and page 9, line 2, "Figure 5" is amended to read "Figure 6." 2. In the first line of page 10 of the specification, the word "correction" is corrected to "interpolation."

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In the printing method of a dot printer that prints characters, symbols, etc. in high quality with a collection of dots, an algorithm is used from the basic dot matrix pattern to create a second dot matrix pattern that fills the gaps between each dot in the basic dot matrix pattern. A dot printer printing method characterized in that the basic dot matrix pattern and the second dot matrix pattern are generated, the basic dot matrix pattern and the second dot matrix pattern are combined and edited, and the combined and edited dot matrix pattern is printed.