JPS6259674B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a dot printer that prints a plurality of dots in a matrix using a print head in which printing elements are arranged in a staggered manner. This invention relates to a method for storing dot patterns.

Figure 1 shows an example of the above print head.
The printing elements _a1 to _a7 are arranged in two vertical rows in a staggered manner. This print head can print with closely spaced dots or print with adjacent dots partially overlapping, resulting in good print quality. The printing elements a ₂ , a ₄ , a ₆ of the second row are shifted by p pitches in the vertical direction and by np pitches in the horizontal direction with respect to the printing elements a ₁ , a ₃ , a ₅ and a ₇ of the first row. or (n+
1/2)p pitch (n: integer).

FIG. 2 shows an example of printing by the above-mentioned printing head, in which printing elements _a1 to _a7 are given an opportunity to be driven every time the printing head moves p pitches, and the printing elements
Print a dot of 〓 at a ₁ , a ₃ , a ₅ , and a ₇ and press the printing element
Print ○ dots at a ₂ , a ₄ , and a ₆ . As shown in FIG. 1, if the second printing element row is spaced apart from the first printing element row by 2p pitch, then the second
The first column in the figure is the first column printing element a ₁ ,
Dots are printed by a ₃ , a ₅ , and a ₇ , and when these printing elements reach the printing position in the third column due to the movement of the printing head, dots are printed by the printing elements a ₂ , a ₄ , and a ₆ in the second column. The remaining dots are printed. The same applies to the following columns, and at the same time when the first column printing element prints the nth column, the second column printing element prints the (n-2)th column. In addition, if the second printing element row is spaced apart by (2p+p/2) pitch from the first printing element row, the printing element in the first row
a ₁ , a ₃ , a ₅ , a ₇ and the second column printing elements a ₂ , a ₄ , a ₆
are driven alternately, and when the printing elements in the first row print the nth column, the printing elements in the second row print the (n-2)th column after the print head moves by 1/2p pitch.

Dot printers that conventionally performed printing operations in the manner described above use the same character system as dot printers in which printing elements are arranged in a vertical line to generate dot patterns of characters, symbols, etc. to be printed. I was using a generator.

This character generator simultaneously generates row dot patterns to be printed in the same column for each character dot pattern, but the printing elements cannot be driven simultaneously by these dot patterns.

Therefore, in the past, a dot pattern sending order control circuit that included a shift register, gate circuit, etc. between the character generator and the print drive circuit was used to print dots of multiple rows at the same time or to print the rows before and after the rows alternately. was established. However, conventional dot printers have the disadvantage that the printing control circuit is complicated and the price is high.

The present invention aims to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks.
In a dot printer with printing elements arranged in a staggered pattern, dots are printed from a character generator.
To provide a dot pattern storage method that allows printing by simply sending out patterns in a normal order.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Throughout the text, the dot-printed rows will be referred to as columns, and the dot-printed rows will be referred to as rows. Third
The figure shows one line of dot pattern storage according to the present invention, which is used to print the letter "B" in a 7×5 matrix as shown in FIG. 2 using the print head shown in FIG. It is something.

As shown in the figure, the dot pattern information is 7 vertical x 7 horizontal.
It is expressed as Two columns are added compared to the actual printed dot pattern. The number of columns to be added is determined by how many times the basic pitch _p is the distance between the first printing element row and the second printing element row. In the case of n times, the number of columns added is n. The white circle represents binary logic "1" and means printing of dots. A blank space represents a binary logic "0" and means that no dots are printed.

The first column _C1 of the dot pattern information contains the first
The printing elements a ₁ , a ₂ , a ₅ , and a ₇ of the columns memorize only the dot pattern to be printed in the first column in FIG. 2, and the same printing elements as above are also used in the second column C ₂ . Only the dot patterns to be printed in the second column of FIG. 2 by group are stored. 3rd column C ₃
shows _a dot pattern _printed in _{the third} column _of FIG _. 2nd by a ₆
The dot pattern to be printed in the first column of the figure is also stored. Similarly, 4th column C ₄ and 5th column
Column C ₅ also has a second
The dot patterns to be printed in the fourth and fifth columns in the figure and the dot patterns to be printed in the second and third columns in FIG. 2 by the printing elements in the second row are stored together, respectively. The 6th column C ₆ has the printing elements a ₂ , a ₄ and a ₆ of the second column.
Only the dot pattern to be printed in the column is stored, and also in the seventh column _C7 , only the dot pattern to be printed in the fifth column in FIG. 2 by the printing element group is stored.

In this way, in the dot pattern storage method of the present invention, the dot pattern to be printed is composed of M vertically x N horizontally, and the distance between the first printing element row and the second printing element row is equal to the dot printing interval. n times or (n+
1/2) times, the dot pattern stored in the character generator is represented by M length x width (N+n), and the _N1th column (1≦
The dot pattern to be printed in the _N1 ≦N) is stored as is in the _N1 column, and is printed in the second printing element row.
The dot pattern printed in N ₁ column _is
+n) column, and as a result, from the first column to the nth column, the dot pattern to be printed only by the first printing element row is stored, and
1) From the column to the Nth column, the dot patterns printed by the first printing element row and the second printing element row are stored together, and from the (N+1)th column to the (N+n)th column, the dot patterns to be printed are stored together. The dot pattern to be printed using only the printing element rows is stored.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a print control circuit using a character generator storing dot patterns as described above.

When the code PD of characters or symbols to be printed is input, the character generator 1 prints the code.
Among the dot patterns of characters or symbols corresponding to PD, dot pattern information from the first row to the seventh row of the column indicated by the contents of the column counter 2 is generated from outputs _L1 to _L7 . These dot pattern information are stored in the print dot buffer 3 and then supplied to the timing gate 4. The timing gate 4 supplies the dot pattern information to the printing element drive circuits _D1 to _D7 by means of a clock pulse CP which is supplied each time the print head reaches the next column to be printed. The printing element drive circuits D ₁ , D ₃ , D ₅ and D ₇ are the first
The printing elements a ₁ , a ₃ , a ₅ and a ₇ of the column are driven, and the remaining printing element drive circuits D ₂ , D ₄ , D ₆ drive the printing elements a ₂ ,
Drive a ₄ and a ₆ .

Assuming that the code for the letter "B" is now input and the content of the column counter is "2", the character generator 1 generates dot pattern information for the second column _C2 shown in FIG. This dot pattern information is "1" only in the first and seventh rows and "0" in the others, so when the clock pulse CP is output, the printing element drive circuit _D1 and
A driving current is applied to _D7 , and dots are printed on the first and seventh rows of the second column. Next, the character generator 1 sends out the dot pattern information of the third column C3 because the column counter 2 is counted up to " ₃ " by the clock pulse CP. In this dot pattern information, the first row, second row, fourth row, sixth row and seventh row are "1". Therefore, the printing element drive circuits D ₁ , D ₂ , D ₄ , D ₆ and D ₇ operate. On the other hand, at this time, the printing elements a ₁ in the first row of the printing head,
a ₃ , a ₅ , a ₇ are located in the third column, and printing elements a ₂ , a ₄ , a ₆ in the second column are located in the first column.
Therefore, at this time, the 1st row, 7th row of the 3rd column, the 2nd row, 4th row, and the 6th row of the 1st column.
Dots are printed on the row at the same time. In the first column, dots have already been printed in the first row, third row, fifth row, and seventh row by the printing element of the first row, so all the rows are printed as shown in FIG. This means that a dot is printed on the . The following is repeated until the content of column counter 2 becomes "7", and the second
Dot printing as shown in the figure is performed.

As explained in detail above, according to the present invention, there is no need for a circuit that controls the sending order of dot pattern information in the same column, which simplifies the configuration of the print control circuit and reduces the cost. effective.

The present invention is also applicable to cases where the number of printing element rows is three or more, and the above-mentioned FIG. However, it goes without saying that the present invention is applicable even when printing heads whose distances are further shifted by half a pitch are used.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a print head suitable for the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of printing by the print head of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of dot pattern storage according to the present invention. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a printing control circuit using dot pattern information stored in accordance with the present invention. a ₁ ~ a ₇ ...Printing element, 1 ... Character generator, 2 ... Column counter, 3 ... Print dot buffer, 4 ... Timing gate, D ₁ ...
D ₇ ...Printing element drive circuit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a dot pattern storage method for printing a dot pattern of M length x N width using a print head in which printing elements are arranged in two vertical rows in a staggered manner, the dot pattern is stored per character. Length M x width (N
+n) (where n is an integer) and stores it, and the distance between the printing elements in the first and second rows is n times the dot printing pitch or (n+1/2) times the dot printing pitch. The _N1th column (however, 1
≦N ₁ ≦N) The dot pattern to be printed is the N ₁
A dot pattern storage method, characterized in that a dot pattern to be stored in columns and printed in the _N1th column by a second column of printing elements printed in even-numbered rows is stored in the ( _N1 +n)th column.