JPS6179674A - Image/character overlapping printing control system of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable synthetic printing by separately processing image data and character data, by developing the vector pattern of a printing line in line buffer and, after the completion of development of a character pattern in the line buffer, performing printing on the basis of the content of the line buffer. CONSTITUTION:Only when a residual space exceeds a head width by the detection of a new line command, this state is informed to an image development part 4 to perform the image development processing of one line. The vector or partial vector pattern, which enters the line region of a character data line set to the printing object of parameter indication on the basis of the image data stored in image parameter buffer 5, is developed at the predetermined position of line buffer 6. The image development part 4 allows the built-in character pattern generator to convert each character data to develop the same at the predetermined position of the line buffer at the completion time of the image development to the line buffer 6. By this method, the logical sum of the image and the character pattern is stored in the line buffer 6 and read by a printer mechanism control part 7 to perform printing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a control method for a printer used in an information processing system. This invention relates to an efficient overlapping printing control method.

[Conventional technology]

Explanatory documents with a single diagram or documents containing specially designed characters and marks are often created using a printer. FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of a document having image data such as figures and marks. In FIG. 1, 21 represents a character data area and 22 represents an image data area.

By the way, the position of character data can be automatically determined by a write command, line feed command, and data order according to preset line spacing, pinch, etc. But for image data.

This is because the position is arbitrary in units of dots, and regularity like 9-character data cannot be used.

The printer's position on the paper must be specified individually using X and Y coordinates. That is, single character data is positioned in character space, and image data is positioned in dot space.

For this reason, conventionally, image data and character data are
If you need to print out the image data and character data together on a sheet of paper, first separate the image data and character data spatially and
For example, after printing all the image data, you can rewind the paper and print the character data over it again, or you can embed the character data in the image data and store the 9 character data as a type of image data in a single dot space. The method used was to print using

FIGS. 3 and 4 schematically show examples of printer control mechanisms according to the above two methods, respectively.

First, in the example shown in FIG. 3, 31 is a character code buffer, 32 is a character pattern generator, 33 is an image parameter buffer, 34 is a vector generator, 35 is a bitmap memory, 36 is a printer mechanism control unit, and 37 is a paper sheet. It represents.

In the mechanism shown in FIG. 3, nine character data and image data are stored separately in a character code buffer 31 and an image parameter buffer 33 as code-like data in command or order format, respectively. Character data and image data are printed separately by switching the operation mode.

The screen spaces for character data and image data are independent, and the positions of one character data and image data are specified within their respective spaces.

When the character data printing operation mode is set, a series of character data stored in the one-character code buffer 31 is sequentially read out and converted into a character dot pattern by the nine-character pattern generator 32.

The printer mechanism control unit 36 prints on a predetermined position on the paper 37.

On the other hand, in the operation mode 1 of image data printing.

The image data stored in the image parameter buffer 33 is read out, a vector generator 34 generates a hector pattern such as 9 straight circles designated by the parameters, and the pattern is temporarily stored in a predetermined position in the bitmap memory 35. The bitmap memory 35 corresponds to the screen space of image data. The hector pattern stored in the bitmap memory 35 is first printed on the paper 37 by the printer mechanism control section 36.

The printing of character data and the printing of image data are independent of each other, and regardless of which one is executed first, by rewinding the paper after printing the -th time and printing the first time and then the second time, each is printed over the specified area on the paper.

Next, in the example in Figure 4, 41 is a character code buffer;
42 is a character pattern generator, 43 is a character/image data buffer, 44 is a vector generator, 45 is a bitmap memory, 46 is a printer mechanism control unit, and 47 is a sheet of paper.

The mechanism shown in FIG. 4 is used by switching between two operating modes: one in which only one character data is printed, and the other in which mixed data of two characters and an image is printed.

The operation mode for printing only character data corresponds to the operation mode for printing character data in the mechanism shown in FIG. 3, and only character data is stored in the one-character code buffer 41. Each character data read from the character code buffer 41 is converted into a character pattern by a nine-character pattern generator 42 and printed on a sheet 47 by a printer mechanism control section 46.

On the other hand, the operation mode that prints mixed data of two characters and an image is used only when printing both nine characters and an image overlappingly, and the nine character data and image data are separated as shown in Figure 3. They are stored together in the character/image data buffer 43, not as a shape. If the data read from the character/image data buffer 43 is character data, it is converted into a character pattern by the character pattern generator 42 and stored in the bitmap memory 45.
If it is image data, it is converted into a vector pattern by a vector generator 44 and stored in a bitmap memory 45. That is, a dot pattern of one character and an image is overwritten at each designated position in the bitmap memory 45 corresponding to the screen space of the paper. The contents of the bitmap memory obtained in this manner are sequentially read out and printed on paper 47 by the printer mechanism control section 46. Therefore, overlapping printing of character data and image data can be performed at one time.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

As mentioned above, in the conventional overlapping printing technology for character data and image data, printing of 9 character data and image data is performed in two parts, but it is possible to print in one time using mixed data of 2 character data and image data. However, the former method requires rewinding the paper and takes a long time to print, while the latter method separates character data and image data on the printer's common screen space. There is a problem in that the position must be specified (mapping) using , which increases the workload and makes the buffer structure redundant.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, the present invention provides a line buffer for printing lines.

It automatically expands and prints images and character patterns one line at a time using line feed commands, and consists of a character code buffer that stores code-format character data and commands.

The image parameter buffer stores image data in parameter format, the line buffer stores data for one print line in dot format, and the character data stored in the 9-character code buffer is sequentially converted into character patterns and sent to the line. A character development unit that develops a character development unit, and an image development unit that generates a vector pattern based on image data stored in an image parameter buffer and develops only the vector pattern included in an instructed print line into a line buffer. In the overlap printing operation mode, when the single character development section detects a line feed command input to the character code buffer, it instructs the image development section to create a vector pattern for the printing line based on the image data stored in the image parameter buffer. Expand to line buffer1
Next, a character pattern is developed into a line buffer based on the character data stored in the character code buffer, and after the development is completed, printing is performed based on the contents of the two-line buffer.

〔Example〕

The details of the present invention will be explained below based on examples.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which 1 is a printer logic control section, 2 is a character development section, 3 is a character cordova sofa, 4 is an image development section, and 5 is an image parameter. buffer.

Reference numeral 6 indicates a row bar/sofa, 7 a printer mechanism control section, and 8 a sheet of paper. Further, FIG. 5 is a control flow diagram of the character expansion section, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the operation.

The printer logic control section 1 controls the operation of the entire printer, and in this embodiment, when it detects an operation mode in which two characters and an image are printed in an overlapping manner, it notifies the character expansion section 2 to perform a single overlapping printing operation. In addition, by a write command, code-format character data in a predetermined data area on the memory (not shown) is compressed and sequentially stored in the character code buffer 3, and parameter-format image data is similarly stored in the image parameter buffer 5. do. The operating mode can be set by a program or by a command.

As shown in the control flow of FIG. 5, when the character development section 2 detects a line feed command, it checks whether the remaining space exceeds the head width.

Only when the remaining space exceeds the head width, the image development section 4 is notified and is caused to perform image development processing for one line. The image development unit 4 includes a hector generator, and generates a vector that falls into the line area of the character data line currently being printed in the vector pattern of the figure whose parameters are specified by the image data stored in the image parameter buffer 5. A pattern or partial vector pattern is generated and developed at a predetermined position in the two-line buffer 6.

The line buffer 6 has a vertical dot size equal to the width of the 7 dots, and a dot size in the horizontal direction equal to the horizontal length of the printer's screen space.

When the image development section 4 finishes image development into the line buffer 6, it notifies the character development section 2, and the single character development section 2 internally stores each character data stored in the character code buffer 3 based on the notification. The data is converted into a character pattern using a character pattern generator, and expanded to a predetermined position in the two-line buffer 6.

In this way, the one-line buffer 6 stores the logical sum of the image and the character pattern.

Next, the contents of the line buffer 6 are read out and printed by the printer mechanism control unit 7, and after printing is completed, a line feed operation (line space feed) is performed. If normal termination is performed here, the next line of character data is compressed and stored in the character code buffer 3, and the above-described operation is repeated.

■ to @ in FIG. 6 indicate the contents of each printing line, that is, each time of the line buffer 6, when character data of "a" to "so" and image data consisting of two triangles and diagonal lines are printed overlappingly. This is an example.

Note that in the case of an operation mode in which only one character data is printed, according to instructions from the printer logic control section 1.

The character development section 2 only converts the contents of the one-character code buffer 3 into a character pattern, develops it in the line buffer 6, and prints it.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to process image data and character data separately and combine them into one for printing, thereby facilitating output form design.

Furthermore, compared to conventional methods, the buffer capacity can be reduced, and a printer with efficient image/character printing control functions is provided.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of one embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of overlapping printing of images and characters, and FIGS. 3 and 4 are configuration diagrams of different conventional examples. FIG. 5 is a control flow diagram of operations centered on the character development section in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a specific example of overprinting based on this embodiment. In the figure, 1 is a printer logic control unit, 2 is a character expansion unit, 3 is a character code buffer, 4 is an image expansion unit, 5 is an image parameter buffer, 6 is a line buffer, 7 is a printer mechanism control unit, and 8 is a paper show. Patent applicant: Usatsuk Electronics Industry Co., Ltd. Representative patent attorney: Fumihiro Hase (2 others) District 1, Figure 6

Claims (1)

[Claims] A character code buffer that stores character data and commands in code format, an image parameter buffer that stores image data in parameter format, a line buffer that stores data for one print line in dot format, and a character code buffer that stores data for one print line in dot format. A character expansion unit that sequentially converts character data into character patterns and develops them into a line buffer, and a character expansion unit that generates vector patterns based on the image data stored in the image parameter buffer and vector patterns included in specified print lines. In the overprint operation mode, when the character expansion section detects a line feed command input to the character code buffer, it instructs the image expansion section to store it in the image parameter buffer. The vector pattern of the print line is expanded into the line buffer based on the image data stored in the character code buffer, the character pattern is expanded into the line buffer based on the character data stored in the character code buffer, and after the expansion is completed, the vector pattern of the line buffer is expanded. A printer image/character overlapping printing control method characterized by printing based on content.