JPS62176869A - Color dot line printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce color change-over time of an ink ribbon and a paper feed time and to perform color printing at a high speed, by providing an image buffer for making a lateral-direction multicolor multistripe ink ribbon movable up-and-down and enabling printing of one page or a fraction with integer denominators of one page for every color. CONSTITUTION:An ink ribbon 4 has four colors in a stripe form. In changing- over, a ribbon cassette 5 is turned upside down to select one color among four. The data corresponding to one page with respect to one color is written in an image buffer from a computer main body and, thereafter, one color printing of one page is performed. Next, with respect to a separate color, the data corresponding to one page is read from the computer main body to be written in the image buffer. At this time, the ribbon cassette 5 is operated so that the paper feed corresponding to one page in a reverse direction, the color data read from the computer main body and the same color ink ribbon are simultaneously selected. By repeating this operation, the color printing of one page is performed. By this method, the number of change-over times of the color of the ink ribbon is reduced and the time required in the changing -over of a color can be reduced.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a dot-line printer for color printing.

[Prior art] Conventional dots, lines, and
Printers use ink ribbons in which several colors are arranged in order in the longitudinal direction, and a color sensor detects the current color of this ink ribbon.

Furthermore, in order to select the color to be printed, an ink ribbon was wound to produce the desired color, and this was done every time the color was changed.

[Points F and Ia to be solved] Conventional dot-line printers for color printing have ink ribbons that change color in the longitudinal direction, so they have added a color sensor and are currently using ink ribbons.
It is necessary to detect what color the ribbon is. In addition, in order to select the color to be printed next, it is necessary to wind the ink ribbon to obtain the color to be printed, and there is a drawback that it takes time to change the color of the ink ribbon. Also, since the ink ribbon changes color along its length, it is not possible to print one color endlessly, but once a certain amount of printing is done, the ink ribbon becomes a different color, so within the range that can be printed with one color, After printing, it is necessary to feed the paper in the opposite direction and print a different color. For this reason, it is necessary to frequently change colors and feed the paper in the reverse direction, resulting in the disadvantage that printing takes time.

[Problem Solution F] The present invention has been made in response to the problems of the conventional art, and reduces the time required to change the ink ribbon color and the time required to feed the paper in the reverse direction. Color dots that can be used for high-speed color printing.
It aims to provide line printers.

To this end, the present invention provides a multi-colored
An ink ribbon cassette that has a striped ink ribbon and can be moved downward according to each color of the ink ribbon, and is capable of printing one page or one integer fraction of one page for each color. has an image buffer to
The present invention provides a color dot/line printer that prints by repeatedly switching colors for each page or every integer fraction of one page and feeding the printing paper in the opposite direction.

[Example] Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a dot/line Φ printer according to an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a platen, 2 is a printing paper, 3 is a ribbon guide roller, 4 is an ink ribbon, 5 is a ribbon cassette, and 6 is a head. FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the ink ribbon and ribbon cassette. The ink ribbon has four colors in stripes as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. The four colors are, for example, yellow a, magenta b, cyan C, and black d.

When switching, move the ribbon cassette 5 up and down and
Select one of the colors. When changing the color of the ink ribbon 4 and when setting the ribbon cassette 5, the platen 1 and the ribbon guide roller 3 are retracted.

Further, the ribbon cassette 5 is set so as to be diagonal to the direction of the water flow. This ensures uniform use of the ink ribbon 4.

The state of color Φ printing will be explained with reference to FIG. That is, first, one page of yellow a is printed, then one page of magenta b, then one page of cyan C, and finally one page of black d. In this example,
Since it has an image buffer for one page, one page's worth of data for one color is loaded into the image buffer from the computer main body 11, and then one page's worth of printing is performed. Next, one page of data for another color is read from the computer main unit 11 that sends the data to the printer, and written to the image buffer.
Paper feeding in the opposite direction for pages and computer main body 1
The ribbon cassette 5 is operated so as to select the interribbon of the same color as the color data to be read from 1.

At this time, after the platen 1 and ribbon guide roller 3 are retracted, the ribbon cassette 5 is operated. After that, printing for one page is performed.

This operation is repeated to perform color printing for one page. The capacity of the image buffer is 1/n of one page (n
is ff1a), one page is divided into 1/n parts, and color printing is performed on the first 1/n page by performing the same operation as described in Section L. Then the next n
Perform the same operation as described in Section L for one half page to perform color printing. This operation is repeated to print one page in color. Note that 22 is a tractor. Next, the control circuit of the printer of the present invention will be explained with reference to FIG. 11 is a computer main body that sends data to the printer. 12 is a printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, 13 is an interface circuit, 14 is a code buffer, 15 is a control circuit, and 16 is a character generator (C
haracterGenerator) (hereinafter referred to as C
G), 17 is an image buffer for one page, 1
Reference numeral 8 denotes a conversion circuit for converting image buffer data into driving data for the /\\hammer drive circuit of the dot number line printer, and 19 a hammer drive circuit. The control circuit 15 writes the data in the code buffer 14 to the image buffer 17 using the CG 16.

If the data sent from the computer main body 11 is image data, it is written into the image buffer 17 by the control circuit 15 after passing through the interface circuit 13. 1 computer body for each color
1 to the printer, image buffer 17
Printing is performed using the ink ribbon 4 of the corresponding color. When making a hard copy of a CRT, it may be one screen instead of one page.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention has a multi-striped ink ribbon with multiple colors in the width direction, and is movable up and down according to each color of the ink ribbon. Ink
It has a ribbon cassette and an image buffer that can print one page or an integer fraction of one page for each color, and can change colors and print paper every one page or an integer fraction of one page. Since this is a color dot/line printer that prints by feeding the paper in the opposite direction, it has a multi-stripe type ribbon cassette, which eliminates the need to wind the ribbon to change the color of the ink ribbon. This reduces the time required to change ink and ribbon colors.
Since it is a type of ribbon cassette, the color is determined by the top and bottom positions of the ribbon cassette, eliminating the need for a color sensor.In addition, by having an image buffer of one page or an integer fraction of one page, For example, if four colors of interribbon are required to print one page, one
When one page of image buffer is used for printing one page, the ink/ribbon color only needs to be changed four times. In addition, if you have an image buffer of l/n of one page (n is an integer), the interribbon color only needs to be changed 4 times x n times for printing one page, and the number of times the ink ribbon color is changed. By reducing the number of ink ribbons and changing one color by moving the ribbon cassette up and down, there is an effect that the time required to change the color of the ink ribbon can be reduced.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a top view of a dot line printer according to an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an external perspective view of an ink ribbon cassette, Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of the ink ribbon, and Fig. 4 ( A) (El) (C) (=) is an explanatory diagram showing a color printing state, and FIG. 5 is a control circuit diagram of the printer. 2: Print paper 4: Ink/ribbon 5: Ribbon cassette 17: Image buffer

Claims (1)

[Claims] An ink ribbon cassette that has a multi-striped ink ribbon with multiple colors in the width direction and can be moved up and down according to each color of the ink ribbon, and a one-page or one-page ink ribbon cassette for each color. Color dots that have an image buffer that enables printing in integer fractions, and are printed by repeatedly switching colors and feeding the printing paper in the opposite direction every page or whole number fraction of a page.・Line printer.