JPS6139676B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention stores fonts of characters, symbols, codes, etc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as "characters") as dot patterns of grid points (center points of grid squares), and stores the fonts of characters, symbols, codes, etc. It relates to a device that displays and outputs.

In general, dot-type character display/output devices that display characters as a collection of small dots, such as character display devices, inkjet printers, mechanical dot printers, and electrostatic dot printers, are shown in Figure 1a. In many cases, a method is adopted in which a character font is stored as a dot pattern on grid points, and the grid points are scanned and displayed/output as a dot pattern at a specified position on the display/output surface. . This type of character display/output device has the advantage that the control part for character output is significantly simpler than devices using other methods (eg, vector method).

By the way, by using such a dot-type character display output device, for example, lowercase English letters "g", "y",
When displaying/outputting characters such as "p", "q", and "," that appear partially below the baseline of English capital letters, the normal
Even if an English capital letter can be represented with 5 x grid points (storage area), increase the number of grid points to, for example, 11 x 5, as shown in Figure b, and change the letters that appear at the bottom in advance when storing characters. Control is performed by either storing the character codes in the memory, or by decoding the character codes and moving them downward only when these character codes are created. The former requires a larger storage area and takes longer to output one character, while the latter requires a separate decoding circuit. Furthermore,
The characters are small, but the complexity is higher than uppercase (characters with the same size as the distribution area of all grid points).For example, the first
"a" shown in diagram c, or "kiya" in katakana,
In the display/output of "ya", "yu", "yo", etc. of "kiyu", "kiyo", etc., only the lower part of the grid point distribution area can be used, so there is a problem that the number of grid points is insufficient. In conventional methods, the problem is currently resolved by either using the insufficient grid points and allowing the deterioration in character quality, or by greatly increasing the number of grid points (for example, 16 x 12). .

The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a character display/output device that does not require a large increase in character storage area and maintains the simplicity of output control.

The present invention provides a first storage area 1 that stores character fonts as dot patterns on grid points, as shown in FIG. and a second storage area 2 for storing character font control information, the character font being stored in the first storage area in accordance with the control information read from the second storage area. It is characterized by outputting. That is, the fonts of characters are stored (memorized) in the first storage area 1, and the output control device 4 is operated according to the output control information stored in the second storage area 2, and the fonts are read out from the first storage area. Translate the character font,
By scaling, rotating, tilting, etc., the output is output to the display/output device 5 to output characters that are below the baseline as described above, or to display high-quality characters by effectively using all grid points. Or output it.

The present invention will be specifically explained below, taking as an example the case where it is applied to a character display device for displaying characters on a CRT (cathode ray tube) and an inkjet printer. First, the case of a CRT character display device will be explained. As shown in FIG. 3, in a character display device 7 using a CRT 6, a main deflection signal 8 for specifying the position of a character on the display screen and a sub-deflection signal 9 for outputting a character at the specified position are transmitted. The electron beam is deflected by the added deflection signal 10, and in synchronization with the deflection, the electron beam is turned on and off in accordance with the character font, thereby displaying characters at designated positions. Note that 11 indicates a brightness control signal. For example, when displaying "y" using the character font shown in Figure 4, it is displayed on a CRT using deflection signals in the X and Y directions and a luminance signal synchronized with these, as shown in examples a, b, and c in Figure 5. Ru. Note that the main deflection, which requires a large amplitude, is performed using a magnetic field, and the sub-deflection, which has a small amplitude but requires high speed, is performed using an electrostatic field. (FIG. 3) For convenience of explanation, an example will be described in which the main deflection and the sub deflection are not separated.

According to the present invention, according to the character output control information from the second storage area 2, for example, in the case of a character such as "y" that is partially below the baseline, the deflection signal can be used to lower the character by the amount necessary to lower the character. Add the values,
By shifting the level of the deflection signal in the Y direction as shown in FIG. 5d, it is possible to display "y" partially below the baseline on the CRT. When the character font is enlarged or reduced and output, the amplitude of the deflection signal in the Y direction is controlled (reduced in the figure) using the character control information from the second storage area, as shown in Figure 5e. By the way, CRT
can display "y" reduced in the Y (vertical) direction. In the case of expansion/reduction in the X (horizontal) direction, the amplitude of the deflection signal in the X direction may be controlled in the same manner. The deflection signal can be easily enlarged or reduced by using, for example, a multiplication type D/A converter. In addition, when outputting characters by rotating or tilting them, the control device 4 outputs scanning output signals in the X and Y directions of the character font according to the control signal stored in the second storage area according to the rotation angle or tilt angle of the character. The tilted characters are displayed by applying the adjusted deflection signals in the X and Y directions to the CRT 6.

If you prepare 5 bits per character as the second storage area, you can control up to 32 types (degree of vertical shift, rate of enlargement/reduction, degree of rotation, tilt, etc.)
You can choose.

Next, a case where the present invention is implemented in an inkjet printer will be explained. There are two types of inkjet printers: a deflection electric field control method and a charge amount control method.The former is almost the same as the control of the deflection signal in the character display device mentioned above, so we will use the latter as an example. explain. FIG. 6 shows an example of an inkjet printer using a charge amount control method. The ink particles 13 are ejected from the nozzle 12, and the amount of charge of the ink particles passing through the charging electrode 15 is changed by the printing charge signal from the ink particle charge control device 14 in accordance with the output signal from the character font, thereby charging the ink particles. The ink particles passing through the deflection electrode 16 are deflected according to the amount to print on the recording surface 17. In the figure, 18
Reference numeral 19 indicates an ink jet generation control device, 19 indicates a deflection control device, and 20 indicates an ink collection plate. In such an inkjet printer, for example, taking the character font shown in Figure 4 as an example, the amount of charge on the ink particles is controlled as shown in Figure 7a in accordance with the output signal of the character font. Characters are being printed.

According to the present invention, the ink particle charge control device 14 is operated based on the character output control information from the second storage area 2, and the amount of charge of the ink particles by the charging electrode 15 is shifted downward as shown in FIG. 7b. This allows you to print a "y" partially below the baseline on the recording surface. In addition, when printing by enlarging or reducing, "y" can be arbitrarily enlarged or reduced by increasing or decreasing the amplitude of the charge amount (charged voltage) (the figure shows the case of reduction) as shown in Fig. 7c. can be printed. Regarding rotation, for example,
The method of No. 21004 can also be used.

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, easily legible (high quality) characters can be displayed or It has remarkable effects such as being able to record.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an aspect of a character font, FIG. 2 is a principle diagram of a character display/output device of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of implementing the present invention in a character display device, and FIG. FIG. 4 shows an example of a character font, FIG. 5 shows an example of the deflection signal and brightness signal of the device shown in FIG. 3, and FIG. 6 shows an example of the case where the present invention is implemented in a charging type inkjet printer. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the amount of charge in the device of FIG. 6. Codes in the figure: 1...first storage area, 2...second storage area, 3...storage device, 4...output control device, 5...display/output device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Reading control information from a storage device including a first storage area for storing character fonts as dot patterns on grid points and a second storage area for storing control information for the character fonts, and from the second storage area;
A character display/output device comprising a device for controlling the output of a dot pattern in a first storage area in accordance with this information.