JPS6256153A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To perform printing of the same pattern regardless of a printing position without lowering a printing speed, by performing printing on the basis of the section of a data mask circuit and the decision of the presence or absence of the space dot of receiving data in such a state that the patterns of printing data is partly thinned out. CONSTITUTION:Three bytes of printing data sent from an upper-level apparatus are passed through the presence and absence decision circuit 103 of space dot data and, if all of the data are a space, said printing data are stored in a memory 3 unmodified. If there is even one dot data of '1', it is ANDed with a mask pattern instructed by ROM and only printing data n1, n2, n3 corresponding to '1' of the mask pattern are stored in memory 3 from an input/output port 104 in time with a signal issued form a mask control circuit 102 under the control of a control part 2. When all of the printing data n1, n2, n3 are a space, a space dot decision circuit again determines whether a space dot is present to perform the same processing as printing data. When a printing order is received, printing data is read starting at the start point of the memory 3 and sent to a printing control circuit 7 to perform printing.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a wire dot type printer suitable for printing out Chinese characters, graphic patterns, etc., and is particularly aimed at improving the printing speed thereof.

[Background of the invention]

Conventional wire dot printers have the ability to instantly stop data reception or stop printing when the printing wire is used very frequently, such as when printing extremely complex characters or graphic patterns. Control was performed to instantly reduce the printing speed by changing the order, and no consideration was given to reducing the effective printing speed. In addition, in order to improve the speed of wire dot printers, for example, the number of dots in the spaces between characters was set to an odd number, as shown in Figure F2, to mask dot data into one dot row. In this case, the character shape will be different because the masked column is shifted by one VC column for each character. Figure 2 ((Zl is the standard pattern ``shape'', ``island'',
Figure 2 (bl) shows a pattern in which every other dot is masked and spread out, and Figure F2 (c) shows a pattern in which the dots between characters are increased by 5 dots and every other dot is masked.

Regarding water use, the patterns of (bl and (c)) are different.

In addition, as this type of technology, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 57-64
No. 569 is mentioned.

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to print characters and graphic patterns in which printing wires are used very frequently in wire dot printers, without reducing the printing speed, although the printing quality may be slightly degraded. To provide a printer having a function of printing the same pattern regardless of the printing position.

[Summary of the invention]

When receiving dot data of kanji characters and graphic patterns corresponding to a print wire, the present invention identifies space dots and masks the dot data regularly so that the print pattern is the same regardless of the print position. By reducing the frequency of use of the printing wire, the printing speed is effectively increased without reducing the printing speed to protect the printing wire.

[Embodiments of the invention]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a wire dot type printer which is an embodiment of the present invention. Interface control circuit 1
consists of a data mask circuit 101, a mask control circuit 102, a space dot data presence/absence determination circuit 105, and an input/output port 104, and includes a control section 2 and a host device (not shown).
Controls input/output signals between the The control unit 2 is 80
According to the control program in M (read-only memory) 4, the i-mode OMa that controls each part of the printer also functions as a character pattern generator. Memory 5 stores input data. The printing mechanism 8 is composed of a print head, a line direction feeding mechanism for printing, and the like. The print control section circuit 7 controls the print drive and line direction feed of the print head in accordance with signals given from the control section 2 via the input/output control circuit 9. The motor 6 drives a line feed feed mechanism (not shown) for printing paper. The motor sterilization circuit 5 generates motor drive pulses under the control of the control section 20. Operation panel circuit 10
supplies signals corresponding to switch operations on an operation panel (not shown) to the control unit 2 via the input/output control circuit 9. Further, the operation panel circuit 10 blinks a lamp on the operation panel in accordance with a signal sent from the control section 2 via the input/output control circuit 9. The detection circuit 11 sends detection signals from a sensor that detects that the print head has reached the left end or the right end, a sensor that detects the presence or absence of printing paper, etc. to the control unit 2 via the input/output control circuit 9. Next, the operation of the printer of this embodiment will be explained using an example of a printer having a vertical 24 dot configuration. Now, for convenience, we will use dot data 1 as shown in Figure 5.
~ Le! Assume that dot mask printing is executed when , is received. First, the control unit 2 resets the circuits such as the memory 5 and the input/output boat 104, and then
4 to request the transfer of print data to the host device.

In response to this request, the host device sends 5 bytes of print data*
rL2 + 'l is sent. The 5-byte print data sent from the host device is passed through the space dot data presence/absence determination circuit 105, and all data are space dots (. is 1).
1' for printing, 0 for 10'' and space).
If all the data is space, it is stored in the memory 5 as is. , if there is data of 1 even with 1 dot data, FL
The mask pattern instructed by OM is ANDed,
Print data (J *
"2t"s) is stored in the memory 5VC from the input/output port 104 under the control of the control unit 2 according to the timing issued by the mask control circuit 102, and then print data (34, ga, n6) is received. However, when the print data (le 1.
Determine whether there is a space dot in Ls t”a),
The same process as that for the print data (nl*"2 #rLs) is performed. Thereafter, the space dot discrimination circuit is used until dot data of "1" appears in the following data.

When there is print data ('l#"2I's), the mask control circuit 102 prints mask pattern 1 (fourth
Mask pattern 2 in which illustrative symbol)) is shifted one bit higher
According to (FIXJ diagram (b)), the print data sent from the host device (rule a * ns * rule a') is ANDed, only the print data corresponding to mask pattern 2 is gated, and the control unit The data is stored in the memory S under the control of step 2. After that, print data ('7 m "II 1'?
), the process is similar to '1 + rL2 t TLl, and is repeated until the next print trigger control code is received. As a result, print data as shown in FIG. 5 is stored in the memory 5. By receiving a print trigger, print data is read from the starting point of the memory 5, and sent to the print control circuit 7 via the input/output control circuit 9 according to an instruction from the control unit 2 at R, 0M4, and is printed (printing operation (This is the same as a known dot printer, so the details are omitted.) The printing pattern is as shown in Figure 5, and since it is staggered every other dot, the load on the print head is a maximum of 50 inches, so the heating of the print head is necessary. It becomes possible to print at a steady speed without reducing the printing speed for prevention purposes. Also, since the mask is applied only to areas where there are no space dots, the pattern ``shape'' in Figure 2 (α).

The pattern of the "island" is shown in FIG. 1(h) regardless of the number of space dots between the characters to be masked.

The data mask circuit 101 of this embodiment is a gate circuit, and determines whether or not to mask the data line of input dot data under the control of the mask control circuit 102. The presence or absence of a data mask and the mask 1 etc. are selected either by an instruction from the 10-position compensation (not shown) or an instruction from the operation panel (not shown). Therefore, by leaving the data mask circuit 101 open, conventional printing (printing as shown in FIG. 5) is also possible, and by opening the gate, various printing controls such as those shown in FIG. 6 are possible.

In this embodiment, a data mask circuit 101 and a mask opening/opening circuit 102 are provided inside the interface sterilization circuit 1. A device that stores dot pattern data in the OM! may be provided between the ROM 4 and the control 2, or may be implemented by firmware within a microprogram.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention has the configuration described above, the following effects can be obtained.

(1) By controlling the mask circuit, a part of the received data is printed while being scattered, so the printing speed can be lowered, and printing including graphic patterns, figures, etc. can be done without reducing the printing speed. (2) Since the first dot row of each Kanji character is used as a reference, the same pattern can be printed regardless of the number of dots in the spaces between Kanji characters.

(5) Since the mask circuit can be selected using the switch on the operation panel, the printing dot density can be treated as being seemingly infinite, without having to be conscious of output data control from the host.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a conventional dot pattern, (α) is a standard pattern, (/11 is a pattern in which every other dot is masked and scattered) , (C) is a diagram showing a pattern in which every other dot is masked when the number of dots between characters is increased by 5, Figure 3 is a diagram showing an example of a printing pattern, and Figure 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of an i-Nuku pattern. , 5th and 6th figures are explanatory diagrams showing examples of printing patterns. 2... Control unit, 5... Memo 11.9... Input/output 1 system (capital) circuit, 10... Operation panel Circuit, 101...
Data mask circuit, 102...Mask control circuit, 10
4...I/O port. ,7'-:\

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a dot matrix type printer, it is characterized by having a means for printing a partial pattern of print data received from a host device by selecting a data mask circuit and determining the presence or absence of space dots in the received data. printer.