JPS61120755A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enhance printing quality of emphasis characters, by providing a means for discriminating whether or not emphasis character printing is designated, and an emphasis printing controlling means for printing the same character at the second printing position in accordance with the result of discrimination. CONSTITUTION:When data are transferred from the host system side (a) to a data-processing part 1, and when the data are printing data, address data are outputted to a character generator 3. Character pattern data are read from the character generator 3, and are transferred to a shifting circuit 4, which shifts the data by a shifting amount (x), and the shifted data are stored into an address in a printing data buffer 5. Then, the character pattern data transferred from the character generator 3 to the shifting circuit 4 are again stored into the next designated address in the buffer 5, and all character pattern data for a single character are written into the buffer 5. After the character pattern data for the single character are completely stored, when emphasis printing is not designated, processing is completed, and processing of the next printing data is started.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] 1” specific gravity The present invention relates to a printer that performs one-highlight printing.

In general, when creating a document using a document creation machine such as a word processor, it may be desirable to emphasize some characters, such as important information or a title, more than other characters.

Therefore, in general, various printers such as daisy printers, inkjet printers, laser printers, thermal transfer printers, wire dot impact printers, etc.
Some printers are capable of emphasizing printing (also called "shadow printing", "bold printing", etc.) in which printed characters are wider than other characters.

In such printers, emphasized characters are formed by printing the desired character at a designated print position, and also by shifting the same character by a predetermined amount in the column direction (horizontal direction) from the designated print position. This is done by printing again.

However, forming emphasized characters in this way does not change the thickness of the horizontal lines of the characters.

This has the disadvantage that the highlighted characters become unnatural.

Purpose This invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to improve the printing quality of 1-highlighted characters.

1-Iwao In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention includes a determining means for determining whether emphasized printing is specified or not, and a method for determining whether emphasized printing is specified according to the determination result of the determining means. A first printing position and an emphasis printing control means for printing the same character at a second printing position shifted by a predetermined amount in the row and column directions with respect to the first printing position are provided.

Hereinafter, a detailed explanation will be given based on one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer control section showing one embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment is an example of a printer control unit that prints in a dot pattern, such as a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a thermal transfer printer, or a wire dot impact printer, which converts a one-character code into a character pattern using a character generator and prints it. It is.

In this printer control section, a data processing section 1 sends and receives various data transferred from the host system side and performs predetermined data processing.

For example, when print data indicating print characters is received from the host system side, it instructs the position control unit 2 as to the print position where the print data should be printed, and converts the print data into address data for the character generator 3. and output it.

In addition, this data processing unit 1 also serves as a determining means,
It is determined whether the data received from the host system side is emphasized printing instruction data that instructs emphasized printing, and if it is emphasized printing instruction data, it instructs the position control unit 2 to perform emphasized printing, and also prints a predetermined Address data corresponding to the same print data is output to the character generator 3 at the appropriate timing.

The position control unit 2 shifts the printing position instructed by the data processing unit 1 to the shift amount X of the shift circuit 4 and the count value y of the address counter 6 indicating the address of the print data buffer 5.
Convert to

This position control unit 2 also serves as 1-emphasis printing control means, and when emphasis printing is instructed, the shift amount of the shift circuit 4 is added to the shift amount X by a predetermined amount P1 (x+PL). At the same time, the count value of the address counter 6 is set to a predetermined value P2 to the count value y.
is changed to (Y+P2), which is the sum of Y+P2, and is applied to the shift circuit 4 and the address counter 6.

Furthermore, this position control section 2 controls one of the print data buffers 5 from the character generator 3 to the shift circuit 4.
Each time data for an address is transferred, the count value of the address counter 6 is incremented (+1).

Character generator (CG)! l stores a one-character pattern, and a required address is accessed by the address data obtained by converting the print data described above, and character pattern data corresponding to the print data is read from the corresponding address.

The character pattern data read from the character generator 3 is transferred to the shift circuit 4 at appropriate timing.

The shift circuit 4 shifts the character pattern data transferred from the character generator 3 by the shift amount designated by the 1-position control section 2 and transfers it to the print data buffer 5.

The character pattern data transferred from the shift circuit 4 is stored in the print data buffer S at the address specified by the address counter 6.

The character pattern data stored in the print data buffer 5 is transferred to the printing unit 7, for example, when the character pattern data of all the print data for one line is stored.

The printing unit 7 inputs the character pattern data transferred from the print data buffer 5 and outputs the data to the print head (dot impact printer, thermal transfer printer, etc.).

Specified characters are actually printed on printing paper by controlling an inkjet printer, etc.) or a laser beam (laser printer, etc.).

Next, the operation of this embodiment configured as described above will be explained with reference to FIG. 2 and subsequent figures.

First, when data is transferred from the host system side to the data processing section 1, if the data is print data, the data processing section 1 instructs the position control section 2 about the printing position, and also the character generator Output address data to Party B.

Therefore, the 1-position control unit 2 sets the count value y in the address counter 6, sets the shift amount X in the shift circuit 4, and designates the first printing position.

Thereafter, character pattern data corresponding to the print data is read from the character generator (CG) 3 and transferred to the shift circuit 4.

At this time, the shift circuit 4 shifts the one-character pattern data by the shift amount ).

As mentioned above, the address counter S is incremented (+1) each time the transfer of a processing unit (byte unit, word unit, etc.) from the character generator 3 to the shift circuit 4 is completed, and the character is stored in the print data buffer 5. Specify the next address to store pattern data.

Therefore, the character pattern data transferred from the character generator 3 to the shift circuit 4 is stored in the next specified address of the print data buffer 5, and the same process is repeated, thereby all the character pattern data for one character are stored. is written to the print data buffer 5.

If 1-emphasis printing is not designated when the storage of character pattern data for one character is completed, the process is ended and the next print data is processed.

On the other hand, if 1 emphasis printing is specified.

When the character pattern data of one character is stored in the print data buffer 5, the position control unit 2 sets a count value (7+P2) in the address counter 6, and the shift circuit 5
Set the shift amount (x+P1) to specify the second printing position.

Thereafter, the character pattern data for the same print data is transferred from the character generator 3 to the shift circuit 4, and the print data buffer 5 is shifted by (pH) in the column direction and (P2) in the row direction with respect to the previous storage state. The same character pattern data is stored in the same position.

That is, by storing the same character pattern overlappingly in the first print position and the second print position on the print data buffer S, a character pattern of one emphasized character is formed.

In this case as well, when the storage of the same character pattern is finished, the process is finished and the next print data is processed.

The formation of the emphasized character pattern on the print data buffer S will be specifically explained with reference to FIG.

First, the print data buffer 4 has the characters rAJ at the first print position as shown in FIG.
Suppose that character patterns are stored.

Also, the second printing position can be moved in the horizontal direction (
(column direction) and vertical direction (row direction), that is, shift amount P1 and count value P2 are each 1 dot.
Suppose that one highlighted character is formed as a dot.

At this time, the print data buffer S shown in FIG.
Address M contains the pattern of address N and address M.
A pattern that is a composite of the above patterns will be stored.

Therefore, when the pattern data at address M in the print data buffer 5 is read out, the pattern data shown in FIG. Note that a blank space means that there is no pattern.

On the other hand, since the vertical shift amount P2 at this time is 1 dot, the character generator 3 storing the character pattern rAJ, which is the same character shown in FIG. The pattern data shown in is read out. Note that diagonal lines indicate that there is a pattern.

The pattern data read out from this character generator 3 is the horizontal shift amount P1 at this time.
is one dot, so the shift circuit 4 shifts the data by one dot.

The pattern data is changed to the one shown in FIG.

Note that the shift amount X is the same for both emphasized printing and normal printing, so it is not shown here.

Therefore, by synthesizing the pattern data of the address M of the print data buffer 5 shown in (B) of the same figure and the pattern data of the address n of the character generator 3 shown in the same figure (E) after shifting by one dot, , pattern data as shown in FIG.

Therefore, by writing this composite pattern data again to the address M of the print data buffer 5, the address M
Stores pattern data as shown by the solid line in FIG.

By performing the same processing for addresses l-N, the print data buffer 5 contains a pattern for the character rAJ shown by a solid line, a broken line and a solid line ( The pattern indicated by address M) is stored.

That is, in the print data buffer 5, a character pattern of emphasized characters is formed and stored.

Therefore, by printing the character pattern data stored in the print data buffer 5 by the printing unit 7, the character rAJ is shifted from the first printing position by a predetermined amount in the column direction and line direction from the first printing position. The same printing result can be obtained by double printing at the second printing position.

To explain this point generally with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, for example, when printing the character r+J with emphasis, the width of the vertical line is WH and the width of the horizontal line is Wv, as shown in FIG. the letter r
+J is printed at a first printing position indicated by a solid line, and at a second printing position indicated by a broken line, which is shifted by P2 in the column direction and row direction with respect to the first printing position.

As a result, the printing result becomes as shown in Fig. 5, and the width of the vertical line of one character r+J is WH', and the width of the horizontal line is Wv'.
The highlighted character "+1" is formed.

In this way, when performing double-emphasis printing, this printer double-prints the same character at the specified first print position and at a second print position that is shifted by a predetermined amount in the column and row directions with respect to the first print position. .

As a result, the 1 emphasized character becomes thicker both vertically and horizontally,
Naturally emphasized characters can be obtained.

In the above embodiment, an example was described in which the present invention is applied to a printer that converts the character pattern into a character pattern using a character generator and prints the result, but it can also be applied to a matrix printer such as a daisy printer.

In this case, after printing the letters to be printed at the designated first printing position, the same letters may be printed again at the second printing position after a predetermined amount of space and line feed.

In addition, the second printing position is not limited to one printing position, but may be multiple printing positions in which the same character is printed three or more times by shifting it by a predetermined amount in the row direction (vertical direction) and column direction (horizontal direction). You can also.

Furthermore, the method for forming highlighted characters according to the present invention can be implemented for highlighting in a display device, for example, in addition to a printer.

As described above, according to the present invention, the printing quality of emphasized characters is improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control section of a printer showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing its operation. Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram that also provides a concrete explanation, and Figure 4.
FIG. 5 and FIG. 5 are explanatory diagrams similarly showing an example of a printing state and a printing result. 1...Data processing unit 2...Position control unit 3...
・Character generator 4...Shift circuit 5...Print data buffer 6...Address counter F...Printing section (□ka,
1 person, 1 Hi na 2 Figure 3 (C) (B) Mouth I:
[mouth ``technical''] ■ Figure 4 Figure 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a printer capable of emphasizing printing in which a desired printed character is emphasized more than other printed characters, a determining means for determining whether emphasizing printing is specified or not, and emphasizing printing is designated according to the determination result of the determining means. emphasized printing control means for printing the same character at a designated first printing position and at a second printing position that is shifted by a predetermined amount in the row and column directions with respect to the first printing position; A printer characterized by: