JPS627569A - Plotter-type printer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable character information to be printed while considering a total layout on a paper, by providing a transparent cover as an X-Y coordinate detecting tablet on a plane surface on which a character information input means and a paper are placed. CONSTITUTION:Transparent X and Y electrodes 96, 98 are wired in a grating form by printing on the transparent cover 92. With a character inputted by writing with an input pen 94, and athe X-Y coordinate of the pen 94 can be known from the induced voltage. A printing head means 76 is energized to locally melt an ink layer 86 of a thermal transfer ink sheet 80, thereby printing on the paper 21. At this time, thermal color forming layer 84 of the ink sheet 80 is made to form a color, and the character can be confirmed through the cover 92. As the input and output operations are repeated, the layout can be confirmed at a glance.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plotter type printer device that can print character information on paper while considering the overall layout.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, as part of office automation equipment, word processors that can easily create sentences using printed characters are rapidly becoming popular in offices and homes. Most of the hardware includes a keyboard or tablet as a character input means, an LCD/CRT display as a character display means, and various printer devices that print characters in a dot matrix as a character output means. The most common way to use it is to check the characters entered from the input device on the display device, check the overall layout on the display device, edit it, and finally print it out on paper using a printer device. (For example, Japanese Patent Application No. 59-6023).

Problems to be Solved by the Invention At this time, on the display means, the size, shape, width between lines, and overall balance of the characters finally output by the printer are not intended until they are output by the printer. Generally, it is difficult to fully confirm and estimate whether or not the text was created correctly.

Therefore, in many cases, the output of the text output by the printer device is not satisfactory, and the user has to start writing the text again, which is a very inefficient task.

The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems, and uses a plotter type printer device and a print head means X.

Check the Y coordinate position directly on the paper and check the overall layout,
Printer 6 that allows you to create sentences while keeping balance in mind
It is intended to provide i1f.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above problems, the plotter-type printing apparatus of the present invention includes a character information input means and a flat paper mounting section on which paper such as cut paper or roll paper is placed. a head section movable to any X and Y coordinate position of the paper mounting section; a head X-Y axis drive means for the head section; an XY coordinate detection tablet located on a plane parallel to the paper mounting section and capable of detecting the X and Y coordinate positions of the input pen; The head section is moved accordingly.

Furthermore, the XY coordinate detection tablet is provided with a handwritten character+11 means for recognizing handwritten characters written using an input pen to serve as character information input means.

According to the above-described structure, the present invention envisions the overall layout while looking at the entire sheet of paper fixed to the paper mounting section, and then inputs characters from the character input means by moving the head section to the printing position corresponding to each sentence. By inputting information and printing it using the print head means, you can smoothly create sentences without making mistakes.

Embodiment A plotter type printer device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an external view of a plotter type printer according to an embodiment of the present invention configured as a word processor. The word processor shown in FIG. 1 is roughly divided into a character information input section 90 and a plotter type printer section 18.
0 is located above the plotter type printer section 18.

The character information input in this example is XYj! This is done using an input pen 94 on a transparent cover 92 serving as a coordinate detection tablet. That is, the transparent cover 92
Transparent x and ym poles 96.98 are printed and wired in a grid pattern at fine pitches as shown in the figure, and the input pen 94 receives a magnetic field generated by a current flowing through parallel conductive wires using known technology.
In this method, the X and Y coordinate positions of the input pen 94 are determined from the induced voltage by interlinking with a coil built in the
al Technical Report Vol.
3G No, 3 P 317-P 324).

In this embodiment, a transparent cover 92 for the character information input section is used to input characters directly by hand at a desired position while considering the layout on the paper 21 that can be seen directly below through the transparent cover 92. The input pen 94 is used to record handwritten input on the transparent cover 92 by X, Y.
Detection by coordinates and predetermined handwritten character recognition means (not shown)
can be used to recognize input characters.

Next, FIG. 2 shows the transparent cover 9 of the above-mentioned character information input section 40.
2 is a detailed view of the plotter type printer section 18. FIG. The plotter type printer section 18 has a planar paper mounting section 22 on which paper 21 such as cut paper or roll paper is placed and fixed, and arbitrary X, Y! It has a head section 24 that can move to a coordinate position, and a head X-Y axis driving means 26 that guides and drives the head section in the X-axis and Y-axis directions. It consists of a section 28 and an X-axis guide section 30. The Y-axis guide section 28 is connected to the Y-axis base member 36, which is slidable by passing through two round guide rods 32 and 34 arranged in parallel in the Y-axis direction on the paper mounting section 22. Drive motor 3
8, one guide rod 32 has a feed screw portion 40 on its outer periphery, is rotatably screwed into a screw hole 42 provided in the Y-axis base member 36, and the rod 32 is It is rotatably supported by two bearings 44.4G fixed on the paper mounting part 22 near both ends, and its movement in the axial direction is restricted.
At one end of the rod 32 is a pair of gears 48. SG is engaged, and the rotation of the Y-axis drive motor 38 is transmitted to the rod 32. The other rod 34 is integrally fixed to two bearings 52 and 54 fixed on the paper mounting part 22,
The Y-axis base member 36 is supported and guided through a long hole 56 provided in the Y-axis base member 36. With this configuration, the Y-axis base member 36 is driven in the Y-axis direction by the Y-wheel drive motor 38.

The X-axis guide section 30 includes a head section 24 that is slidable in the X-axis direction while being guided by a round guide rod 56 on the Y-axis base member 36, and an X-wheel drive motor 58. Guide rod 56
is provided with a feed screw portion 60 on its outer periphery like the rod 32, and is rotatably screwed into one of the guide holes 62 and 64 provided in the bifurcated portion of the head portion 24, is slidably passed through the other guide hole 64,
In addition, the guide rod 56 is connected to the Y-wheel base member 3 near both ends thereof.
The guide rod 56 is rotatably supported by two bearings 66 and 68 provided on the guide rod 56, and its movement in the axial direction is restricted.A pair of gears 70 and 72 are engaged with one end of the guide rod 56. , the rotation of the X-axis drive motor 58 is caused by the rotation of the rod 5.
transmitted to G.

FIG. 3 shows a sectional view taken along the line xx' in FIG. 1. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 74 denotes a protrusion projecting downward from the lower end surface of the head section 24, which is in contact with the surface of the Y-axis base member 36, and serves to prevent the head section 24 from rotating around the rod 56. . Further, the head section 24 has the above-mentioned paper attachment section 22 at one end thereof.
A print head means 76 that contacts the paper 21 placed and fixed above and prints characters in a dot matrix on the paper surface, and a liquid crystal type character information display means 78 that can display a plurality of characters such as input characters or output characters. It has integrally.

In this embodiment, a dot matrix serial scan thermal head is used as the print head means 16, and is of a type that prints characters by scanning in the X-axis direction. 80 is an ink sheet for thermal transfer, and as shown in the figure, the paper 2 placed on the print head means 16 and the paper mounting part 22
11! Located at l. The thermal transfer ink sheet 80 has a three-layer structure, with the base sheet 82 being dark, the side that contacts the print head means 16 having a thermosensitive coloring @84, and the side that contacts the paper 21 having a thermal transfer ink layer 86. It is provided.

Next, the operational state of the word processor using the plotter-type printer having the above configuration will be explained.

First, the transparent cover 92 is opened or removed, and the print head XY movement cursor key 108 is used to move the head section 24 to a position where it does not interfere with the placement of the paper 21. Next, the paper 21 and the thermal transfer ink sheet 80 are combined and placed on the paper mounting section 22. Although not shown in the drawings, these fixings may be carried out by pressing with a metal fitting or by means of static electricity generation means provided on the lower surface of the paper attaching portion 22. Now that the preparations are complete, attach the transparent cover 92 to the device again.

Next, text input/output work will be explained. Press the coordinate type key 102 from the command execution key group 100 to enter the coordinate input mode, move the input pen 94, and lower the input pen 94 at the desired X and Y coordinate position on the transparent cover 92.
touch. This will determine the input position and automatically switch to character input mode. At this time, the head section 24 located under the transparent cover 92 is moved by the head X-Y wheel drive means 26 to a position just below the previously determined input position, and the input bench 9
4 becomes the character input special state. In this state, if you input a character using the input pen 94 on the transparent cover 92 near the input position, the procedural character i! l! Characters mll are generated by the recognition means, and the input characters are displayed on the character information display means 78 provided in the head section 24. Then, check the character information displayed on the character information display means 78, and
If it is necessary to convert kanji, etc., perform the conversion operation using the ω command actual input key 102, and then input a print command using the print execution key 106. In response to this print command input, the print head means 76 is energized via a predetermined character generation means (not shown), and the thermal transfer ink layer 86 of the thermal transfer ink sheet 80 is locally transferred in accordance with the principle of the thermal transfer method. It is melted and transferred onto the surface of the paper 21, whereupon it is printed. At this time, the heat-sensitive coloring layer 84 of the thermal transfer ink sheet 80 is also applied to the print head means 1.
6, the color develops thermally and can be confirmed as characters through the transparent cover 20.

If you repeat the above input/output operations, the thermal coloring 1184 of the thermal transfer ink sheet 8G will serve as a display means after printing, and you will be able to confirm the input character content and layout at a glance. become. After all the text has been input, the transparent cover 92 is removed and the thermal transfer ink sheet 80 and the paper 21 are taken out from the paper mounting section 22 to obtain a finished product with the desired text printed on the paper 21. At this time, the thermal transfer ink sheet 80 is disposable after being cut only once.

The plotter type printer device of the present invention has been described using the above embodiments, but if other developments are considered, various configurations as shown below can be easily considered.

First, the print head means 76 integrally attached to the head section 24 has been able to print characters only during scanning in the X-axis direction, but if a configuration is added to the head section 24 that allows it to be rotated about two axes, Characters can be output in any direction on the X, Y coordinate plane.

Second, in the previous embodiments, the thermal transfer ink sheet and paper such as cut paper or roll paper were combined for printing, but only the thermal paper was placed on the paper mount and the print head 76 for thermal printing, or print head section 7
Even if a discharge head is used in 6 and only the discharge recording paper is placed on the paper mounting table 21, the object of the present invention is still met. Furthermore, although examples of manual input such as keyboard input and input from a pen have been shown as character input means, it is clear that the present invention is also applicable to voice recognition input.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, an XY coordinate detection tablet that also serves as a transparent cover capable of detecting the X and Y coordinate positions of the input pen is provided, and the XY coordinate detection tablet is placed on a plane parallel to the paper mounting portion. By moving the head unit that is integrated with the print head means in accordance with the X and Y coordinate positions of the input pen, it is possible to layout text input by treating the plane of the XY coordinate detection tablet as a normal paper. You can decide the printing position while considering the following.

Furthermore, by using handwritten character recognition means that recognizes handwritten characters written using an input pen on an XY coordinate detection tablet, the character input position and the printing position can be almost the same, so hand movements can be minimized. , it becomes possible to input in the same style as when writing sentences on paper.

Furthermore, if the XY seat ridge detection tablet has a planar shape that is equal to or larger than the paper, it becomes possible to layout the paper while literally looking at the entire paper. If it has transparency, the printing situation on the paper, or if the head part is integrated with text display means, etc.
You can see through and check the content you entered by hand.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external view of a plotter type printer according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line xx' in FIG. 1. 18... Plotter type printer section, 21... Paper, 2
2...Paper attachment part, 24...Head part, 26...Head X-Y axis driving means, 7G...Print head means, 1
8... Character information display means, 90... Character information input section, 92... Transparent cover, 94... Input pen, 96.
98...X-Y electrode, 100...Command execution key group "゛"°゛". :. □ 1st figure π?-・Mail bar 2nd figure z2-@@ff z4...- He/F section 26゛° to I de'X, Y?
$ means to report

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Character information input means, a flat paper mounting section on which paper such as cut paper or roll paper is placed, and the paper mounting section movable to any X and Y coordinate position. The head unit includes a head unit, a head X/Y axis drive means for the head unit, and a print head unit that is integrated with the head unit and prints information such as characters on the paper surface, and is arranged in a plane parallel to the paper mounting unit. Position to,
A plotter-type printer device comprising an XY coordinate detection tablet capable of detecting the X and Y coordinate positions of an input pen, and the head section is moved in accordance with the X and Y coordinate positions of the input pen. 2. The character information input means includes handwritten character recognition means for recognizing handwritten characters written on the XY coordinate detection tablet using an input pen, as set forth in claim 1. Plotter type printer device. 3. The plotter type printer device according to claim 1, wherein the XY coordinate detection tablet has a planar shape that is equal to or larger than the sheet of paper placed on the paper mounting section. 4. The plotter type printer device according to claim 1, wherein the XY coordinate detection tablet has a transparency that allows at least the movement of the head section to be seen through.