JPS6227787A - Output unit - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an output device that is equipped with a plurality of pattern generators and is capable of outputting a mixture of a plurality of patterns.For example, it is possible to download patterns from a data generation source. RA
This invention relates to an output device equipped with a pattern generator such as M.

[Summary of the Disclosure] This specification and the drawings describe a first pattern generating means that generates a standard pattern, and a first pattern generating means that generates a standard pattern, in an output device that includes a plurality of pattern generators and is capable of outputting a mixture of a plurality of patterns. A second pattern that can be generated by downloading a second pattern of a different typeface from a data source
a pattern generation means, a selection means for selecting whether the output pattern is generated by the first pattern generation means or the second pattern generation means, and a pattern is downloaded from the data generation source to the second pattern generation means. and pseudo pattern generating means for generating a second pseudo pattern from the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generating means. When the determining means determines that the pattern has not yet been downloaded to the second pattern generating means when selecting the pattern generating means, the first pattern generating means and the pseudo pattern generating means are selected in place of the second pattern generating means. , discloses a technology for an easy-to-use output device that converts a standard pattern generated by a first pattern generating means into a pseudo pattern and outputs the pseudo pattern.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, among output devices capable of generating a plurality of different patterns, output devices other than type printers that output many patterns in the form of dot patterns use character code data obtained from a host computer, etc. is converted in advance into a character dot pattern corresponding to each character code data by a character generator and output. For example, output devices in non-impact printers such as thermal printers, wire dot printers, and laser beam printers fall under this category.

These printers can print characters in different fonts by having character generators for each typeface (character pattern), which is a different pattern.Especially when printing English characters with a small number of characters, etc. There is a high tendency for this to be implemented in printers that are intended for printing.

Furthermore, in recent years, users have been able to register (download) character generators from the data generation source (host) to the output device, in addition to the character generation temperature stored in the resident ROM. It becomes possible to create a character generator, which increases its usability, and also eliminates the need for manufacturers to expand the character generator built into the printing device without limit or to replace the character generator for each individual user, making it extremely limited. It now has the advantage of being able to provide only the same fonts as standard equipment. Therefore, its adoption is expected to increase in the future.

The typeface is changed in various cases, but the most frequently used typeface is the standard typeface in Figure 2 (a).
So-called bold fonts such as b) and Figure 2 (C)
This is a so-called italic typeface. Bold typefaces are expressed by increasing the thickness of the letters compared to the basic typeface, and italic typefaces are expressed by making the slant of the letters more pronounced compared to the bull typeface, and are used to emphasize character strings. . Specifically, changing to another font is usually accomplished by issuing a font change command to the printing device and switching to the character generator address of the specified font in accordance with the command.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in conventionally used printing apparatuses, another problem occurs as described below.

In other words, when a font change command is received, the three specified fonts are not included in the fonts of the character generator registered from the data source in the RAM of the printing device (hereinafter referred to as not registered). At the time, conventional printing devices did not have a means to change and emphasize the font.

Conventional treatments at this time can be broadly classified as follows.

■Notifies you with a message that the specified font is not installed, and ends printing.

(Ignores the Riga font change command and continues printing in the current font.

Among these, (p) requires retransmission of the specified three character code data from the data source in order to continue printing.

Regarding ■, although printing was completed, not only was the font not changed in any way, which was the original purpose, but even the emphasis on character strings, etc., which was the main purpose of the font change instruction, was ignored. was.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the drawbacks of the above-mentioned conventional series, and is a means for solving these problems.

For example, a first pattern generation means that generates a standard pattern, and a second pattern generation means that can generate a pattern by downloading a second pattern in a font different from the standard pattern from a data generation source.
a pattern generation means, a selection means for selecting whether the output pattern is generated by the first pattern generation means or the second pattern generation means; and a determination stage F for determining whether or not the pattern No. 2 has been downloaded.

and pseudo pattern generating means for generating a second pseudo pattern from the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generating means.

[Function] In this configuration, the selection stage selects the second pattern generation stage when the determination means determines that no pattern has been downloaded to the second pattern generation means yet.
The first pattern generating means and the pseudo pattern generating means are selected in place of the pattern generating means, and the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generating means is converted into a pseudo pattern and outputted.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a control mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is a device that inputs character code data and control commands sent from a host computer, etc., and prints with a page printer such as a laser beam printer. The control mechanism is shown.

In the figure, 201 is a computer that is a host computer that generates character code data, control commands, etc., 202 is an input buffer consisting of a RAM for temporarily storing data and control instructions, 203 is a CPU consisting of a general-purpose microprocessor, 204 2 is a built-in character generator consisting of a ROM that generates a character dot pattern according to character code data;
05 is a RAM that stores character patterns (character generator) downloaded from the computer 201 which is the data generation source.
207 is an output page 8 buffer consisting of a RAM capable of storing one page's worth of dot patterns; 208 is a generator that generates a video signal in accordance with the dot pattern information from the output page buffer 207; An interface section 209 interfaces with the page printer 209; 209 is a page printer that receives a video signal from the printer interface section 208 and prints image information based on the video signal; 210 is an output page buffer 20;
211 is a digit counter that stores the digit address of the output page buffer 207; 212 is an emphasis start that instructs whether or not to generate a pseudo pattern from the pattern from the built-in character generator 204; A register 213 is a CPU board on which this control mechanism is mounted.

The operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 will be explained below.

In the configuration shown in FIG. 1, character code data and font designation commands sent from the computer 201 are sent to the input buffer 2.
It is stored in 02.

The format of the font specification in this embodiment device is f53.
As shown in the figure.

Normally, a character code is sent to the built-in character generator 204, the built-in character generator 204 generates a basic character pattern (the font shown in FIG. 2(a)), and this character pattern data is stored in the output page buffer 207. The data is written and output as a dot image to the page printer 209 via the printer interface section 208.

At this time, when the font change format shown in FIG. In the change specified font character pattern included in the change start command 401 (for example,
) is output to the page printer 209. The font change start command 401 includes content specifying what type of font to change the specified font character pattern generated by the font character pattern registration character generator 205 to output to the page printer 209, and the font change end command 401. 40
3 means returning to the original font, that is, the basic character pattern before the font change was implemented.

The character code data and font change commands stored in the input/< font 202 are taken out by the CPU 203 one unit code at a time, and are sequentially processed in the f order according to the flowchart shown in FIG.

According to the flowchart in Figure 4 below, the manual buffer 20
The operation of converting the character code data stored in 2 into character pattern data, storing it in the output page buffer 207, and printing it with the page printer 209 will be explained.

In the figure, first, the CPU 203 performs steps Sl and S2.
Initializes the digit counter 211 indicating the horizontal print position and the direction counter 210 indicating the vertical print position, and further instructs to generate a pseudo pattern specified from the basic character pattern in step S3 - start emphasizing. Initialize register 212.

After the above initialization is completed, the CPU 203 performs step S
In step S4, one unit of code is read from the input buffer 202, and in step S5, it is determined whether or not the data has ended.
If it is not the end of the data, step S6. In S7, it is determined whether the read code is a command regarding a font change. If it is determined that this is not the command, the process proceeds to step S8, and the emphasis start register is checked.

Since it is normally "0", the process advances to step S9, and a character dot pattern corresponding to the character code is generated in the output page buffer 207. Here, the character code data is
Sent to the specified character generator, which generates the corresponding dot pattern. This is because there is almost no difference between the two control methods, which generate the dot pattern from the registered character generator 205 during the font change according to the font change instruction shown in Fig. 3, and from the built-in character generator 204 in other cases. An example of generating from the built-in character generator 204 will be described.

The character code data becomes the address of a built-in character generator 204 consisting of RAM or ROM that stores dot patterns for each character of the standard font (first pattern), and the character dot patterns generated thereby are sent to the CPU 2.
03, the image is properly positioned as will be described later, and an image of one character is formed as a dot on the output page buffer 207. Here, the typeface stored in the built-in character generator 204 is not particularly limited as long as it is a standard typeface.

Next, the position of the generated character will be explained using FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the page layout printed by the page printer 209 in this embodiment. In the figure, 301 is the number of left margin digits (sentence m), 302 is the body digit a(n), and 303 is the right margin digit. The number (rm), 304 is L total number of rows (tm), 3
05 is the number of body lines (L), 306 is the number of bottom margin lines (bm),
307 is the number of dots at the line pitch (yp), and 308 is the number of dots at the character pitch (xp). When the upper left corner of the page is the origin (0, 0), the value of the digit counter 211 is Xc, and the value of the direction counter is Yc, the position (XOlyo) of the lower right corner of the character dot pattern of the generated character is XO = (Qm + Xc )Xxp yo=(tm+Yc)Xyp The position of the generated character is determined as Xc and Yc change.

After characters are generated in step S9 using the method described below, the value of the digit counter 211 is incremented by 1 in step Sll, and a check is made for digit overflow in step S12. If the number of digit counters 211 is smaller than the number of body digits (n) 302, step S4
Return to and read the next 1-unit code.

Characters are generated one after another in the same manner, and step 512
If a digit error occurs in , that is, if the value of the digit counter 211 reaches the number of body digits (n) 302, the process proceeds to step S13, where the value of the line counter 210 is increased by 1,
After initializing the digit counter in step 514, page overflow is determined in step S15.If it is determined that the page is not overflowing, that is, the value of the missing counter 210 is compared to the number of body lines (Jl) 305. If they are equal or smaller, it is assumed that there is still room in the output page buffer, and the process returns to step S4 to continue the process of creating the output page/future 207. Conversely, if it is determined in step S15 that the page is overflowing, that is, the row counter 210
If the value is larger than the number of text lines (1305), it is equivalent to one page (7).Assuming that the creation of the output page buffer 207 is completed, a dot image of one scan line each is sent to the printer interface unit 207. After being converted into a video signal in the transfer section, printing is performed by a page printer 209, which is an output device.

Similarly, pages are created one after another by repeating steps S4 to 517.

Next, a description will be given of processing when a font change is commanded.

If the character code read from the input buffer in step S6 is the font change start command 401, in step S20, the registered character generator 205 is a character generator of the font specified by the command, and the font is changed. It is determined whether or not it can be used. That is, it is determined whether the font specified in advance has been downloaded into the 4-registered character generator 205.

That is, a unique specific code indicating the content of the font is stored in a certain area of the registered character generator 205, and by reading this code, it is determined whether the font matches the font specified by the font change start command 401. .

Furthermore, even if not a single character is registered in the registered character generator 205, this does not affect the determination.As a result of such determination, if the designated font is usable, the built-in characters are changed in step S21. After switching the value of the base register in the CPU 203, which was addressing the generator 204, to point to the registered character generator 205, the process returns to step S4 and begins processing of the next unit code. Thereafter, printing is performed using the changed font, that is, the font of the character dot pattern generated by the registered character generator 205, until the font change end command 403 is read.

Next, when the font change end command 403 is read, it is recognized in step S7, and the process proceeds from step S7 to step S23, where it is determined whether the specified font is set in the emphasis start register 212. When a font change command is issued and the specified font is available for use, as in the case where there is no font change start command, no equivalent operation has been applied to the emphasis start register 212, so the register is initialized. Since the value is maintained, the process advances to step S24, where the operation opposite to step 521 described above is performed. That is, after switching the value of the pace register in the CPU 203 that was addressing the registered character generator 205 to address the built-in character generator 204, the process returns to step S4 and starts processing the next 1st rank code. . By doing this, from then on, printing is performed again in the previous font, that is, in the font of the built-in character generator 204.

Next, a method of processing when a font change command is issued and the specified font is not included in the fonts of the registered character generator 205 of the apparatus of this embodiment will be described below.

In this case, in step S22, the emphasis start register 212
The specified font is set in , and the process advances from step S8 to step S30. In step S30, it is checked whether the designated eight fonts are old italic fonts, and if they are italic fonts, the process proceeds to step 531, where the line counter 210 and digit counter 21
A character pattern is generated at the position (xo, Yo) specified in step 1. At this time, the built-in character generator 204
Page buffer 2 for the output of character patterns generated from
07, and dot development is performed while tilting the generated character pattern. That is, based on the lower end line of the character pattern, the lower end (-1) line is generated by shifting one dot to the right, and the lower end (-n) line is generated by shifting n dots to the right. This results in Figure 6 (b)
) can be developed in the output page buffer 207 in a so-called pseudo-italic style.

In this way, even if the font specification in the emphasis start register 212 is italic and the device is not equipped with a character generator that generates an italic font, a pseudo-italic pattern is developed in the output page buffer 207. , the printer interface unit 20 as a dot image.
8 will be output. and then step Sl
l.

Proceed to step 12.

If italic is not specified in step S30, S32
Go to and check whether bold font is specified. In the case of a bold font, the process advances to step S33, and the line counter 210
and the position 'a (xo, y
After generating a character pattern from the built-in character generator 204 at o) and storing it in the output page buffer 207, the same character pattern is generated at a position shifted by one dot to the right in the output page buffer 207, that is, ( A character pattern is generated and stored at the position xo+1.yo). As a result, the character pattern generated from the built-in character generation 3204 as shown in FIG. 6(a) can realize a pseudo-bold font with thick characters as shown in FIG. 6(C).

In this way, while the font is specified in the emphasis start register 212, the pseudo character pattern is stored in the output page buffer 207.

Further, if it is determined in step S32 that the font is not a bold font, the device of this embodiment does not generate a pseudo pattern and step S9
Proceed to generate a standard pattern. However, the standard pattern may not be generated and may be blank.

Through the processing flow explained in section L above, character patterns are stored in the output buffer 207 according to the font change command and character code data. If a code indicating the end of a job, a code indicating the end of a file, etc.) is recognized in step S5, the process proceeds to step 318. Proceeding to S19, if the contents of the output page buffer 207 currently being created are not empty,
That is, only when the line counter 210 is 2 or more or the digit counter is 1 or more, the contents of the 7<tufa 207 are printed by the page printer 209 via the printer interface section 208, and all processing is completed.

Furthermore, in the device of this embodiment, if a character pattern (character generator) of an italic font or a bold font is unregistered, a pseudo pattern is generated unconditionally and stored in the output page eight buffer 208. However, once the character generator (character pattern) that should generate the specified font on the display device, etc.
It may be controlled to display a message to the effect that it is unregistered, wait for a response from the operator, and then generate a pseudo pattern.

to the operator in that case.

(1) Printing with standard pattern (2) Generate a pseudo pattern and print with the pseudo pattern (3) Blank (no printing) (4) Cancellation of printing It is desirable to be able to select one of the following.

Furthermore, although this embodiment has been described as a printing device that prints dot images from the output page buffer 207 using the page printer 209, the output page buffer 207
It goes without saying that the output of the image can be easily adapted to any output device such as a CRT display device.

[Effect] As explained above, according to the present invention, by providing the standard character pattern generation means and the pseudo pattern generation means, when there is a request to output a character pattern in a font other than the standard character pattern, the output When the character pattern generation means that generates the requested character pattern is registered (memorized), it is possible to output a high-quality character pattern by generating a pattern using it, and even when it is not registered, a pseudo character pattern can be output. can be generated, and the output of the character pattern can be used to emphasize or draw attention, and the purpose of changing the font can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block configuration diagram of an output device according to an embodiment of the present invention, fJs2 Figs. ) is standard typeface, second
Figure (b) shows an example of a bold font, Figure 2 (C) shows an example of an italic font, Figure 3 shows the format of an output font change command in the device of this embodiment, and Figure 4 shows an example of the device of this embodiment. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the output page layout of the apparatus of this embodiment. FIG. 6(a) is a diagram showing an example of the generation of standard character patterns. Figure 6(b) is a diagram showing an example of character pattern generation in a pseudo italic font of the standard character pattern of Figure 6(a), and Figure 6(c) is a diagram of the standard character pattern of Figure 6(a). FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of character pattern generation in a bold typeface. In the figure, 201...Calculator, 202...Input buffer, 203...CPU, 204...Built-in character generator,
205... Registered character generator, 207... Output page buffer, 208... Printer interface unit,
209... Page printer, 210... Line counter, 211... Digit counter, 212... Emphasis start register, 401... Font change start command, 402... T
EXT, 403...This is a font change end command. Patent applicant Canon Co., Ltd. Figure 2 (0) Excellenccintypogr2ph
yisthe(b) Excellenceintyp
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Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) a first pattern generation means for generating a standard pattern; a second pattern generation means capable of generating a pattern by downloading a second pattern in a font different from the standard pattern from a data generation source; selection means for selecting whether to generate the pattern from the first pattern generation means or the second pattern generation means; and whether the second pattern is downloaded from the data generation source to the second pattern generation means. and pseudo pattern generation means for generating a pseudo pattern of the second pattern from the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generation means; When the determining means determines that the pattern has not been downloaded to the second pattern generating means when selecting the pattern generating means, the first pattern generating means and the pseudo pattern generating means are replaced with the second pattern generating means. An output device for converting the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generating means into a pseudo pattern and outputting the pseudo pattern. (2) The second pattern generated by the second pattern generation means is a bold font, and the pseudo pattern generation means shifts the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generation means by an appropriate amount and overlaps it to generate a pseudo pattern. An output device according to claim 1. (3) The second pattern generated by the second pattern generation means is made into an italic font, and the pseudo pattern generation means develops the standard pattern generated by the first pattern generation means with a certain slope to generate a pseudo pattern. An output device according to claim 1, characterized in that: