JPS6297859A - Recording apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable the consecutive printing of characters having different styles and equal height in the same printing area, by providing a printing head with a plurality of sets of dot arrangements being different in the direction of arrangement from one another, and by selecting any one of the dot arrangements different in the direction of arrangement on the basis of a program, in a recording system to which a dot matrix printer having a serial printing head or the like is adapted. CONSTITUTION:In addition to a first dot arrangement 21, a second dot arrangement 22 disposed in the oblique direction is provided in a printing head 1. A control circuit 4 controlling selectively the electrification of the first and second dot arrangements 21 and 22 through common patterns 31 and 32 and a pattern 33 in accordance with printing signals is provided for both of the dot arrangements 21 and 22. The control circuit 4 electrifies the common pattern 31, with the common pattern 32 cut off, in the case of printing of a roman type, while electrifying the common pattern 32 with the common pattern 31 cut off in the case of printing of an italic type. In this way, the easy and inexpensive printing of characters having different styles and equal size is enabled.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a recording device applied to a dot matrix printer or the like having a serial print head.

[Conventional technology]

As a conventional dot matrix printer, it was first developed in 1982.
Typeface as shown in -124152 publication.

There is something that allows you to change. This will be explained with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

In the figure, (1) is a thermal print head which can be fixed at an arbitrary angle with respect to a carriage (not shown). (2) is a set of print dot arrays provided on the print head (1).

In the above configuration, when printing Roman characters,
As shown in Figure 3, the thermal print head (1) is fixed to the carriage so that the dot array (2) faces perpendicularly to the moving direction (indicated by arrow a) of the carriage (not shown). Ru.・Also, when printing italic characters, the dot array (2) is set at an angle θ (approximately 30° in the figure) corresponding to the desired inclination angle with respect to the moving direction of the carriage, as shown in Figure 4. ) and fix it to the carriage.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In conventional recording devices, the thermal print head (1) is configured as shown below, so each time the printing font is changed, the fixed angle of the thermal print head (1) relative to the carriage must be changed. However, it has been difficult to mix different fonts within the same printing area. In addition, since the same dot array (2) is fixed at different angles with respect to the direction of carriage movement, if the character height in the case of the Roman font shown in Fig. 3 is hn, then the height of the characters in the case of the italic font shown in Fig. 4 is Character height hx is h! = hnecosθ (θ is the inclination angle of the Todd array), and there were problems such as the character height changing depending on the typeface.

This invention was made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and allows the font to be easily changed without changing the angle at which the print head is fixed to the carriage. The purpose is to provide a recording device of the same quality at a low cost.

[Means for Solving the Problems] A recording device according to the present invention is configured such that a print head is provided with a plurality of sets of dot arrays having mutually different array directions, and each dot array is selectively used. It is.

[Effect]

In this invention, since it is possible to print by selecting one of the dot arrays with different alignment directions by program without changing the fixed position of the print head with respect to the carriage, characters in different fonts can be printed continuously in the same print area. By making the character heights of different dot arrays the same size, it is possible to make the height of the printed characters the same in each typeface.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a printing surface of a print head in a recording apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, (1) is a thermal print head, and (2) is a dot array group in which each dot generates heat according to the print pattern and exerts a thermal reaction on the recording paper (not shown), which prints on the carriage. Head (1
) is fixed and the first dot array 02m) is arranged in a direction perpendicular to the carriage movement direction, and the print head (1) is fixed to the carriage at a predetermined angle with respect to the direction perpendicular to the carriage movement direction. a second array of dots arranged in a direction inclined by θ). (3) is a printed pattern that constitutes an electric signal line for the first and second dot arrays (c) and (a), and is a first common pattern e' that supplies power to the first dot array ■υ.
D, a second common pattern that supplies power to the second dot array (2), both dot arrays (c), and a pattern that supplies power to each dot (to). (4) is a control circuit that selectively controls the energization of both dot arrays Qυ and (2) in accordance with the print signal, and is composed of, for example, an IC. (
5) is a flexible cable for supplying print signals to the head (1).

In the print head configured as described above, when printing Roman characters, the control circuit (4)
The second common power supply pattern clη is energized, and the second common power supply pattern (to) is cut off. Therefore, the only dot array that generates heat in response to the print signal is the first dot array arranged perpendicular to the direction of carriage movement.

Further, when italic characters are to be printed, the control circuit (4) energizes the second common power supply pattern (2) and cuts off the first common power supply pattern (0). Therefore, only the second dot array (a) generates heat in response to the print signal, and it is possible to print on an italic character that is inclined by an angle θ with respect to the carriage movement direction. - In the above embodiment, the selection of the roman type dot array 91) and the italic type dot array (2) was described using the example of switching between the common power supply patterns o1) and a, but as shown in FIG. The common pattern 0υ, ) is always each dot array Cυ, @
Connect each pattern (to) to the control circuit (
4) may be used.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, an example was described in which the control circuit (4) was arranged on the print head (1), but the control circuit (4) was arranged on the print head (1).
) may be arranged in a part other than the print head (1), and the print head (1) and the control circuit (4) may be electrically connected by a flexible cable (5) or the like.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, one printed character (1
) is provided with multiple dot arrays with different angles, and a specific dot array can be selected and used, making it possible to print characters with different fonts easily and inexpensively. In addition, even if the printing font is changed, the font size (height) does not change, which has the effect of providing clear printing.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a printing surface showing an example of a print head in a recording device according to the present invention, FIG. This figure is a schematic diagram of a conventional print head, and FIG. 4 is a state diagram when printing different fonts with the conventional print head. In the figure, (1)...Print head, (B)...First dot array, (2)...Second dot array, (4)...Control circuit. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A carriage that faces the platen and is movable in the longitudinal direction of the platen, and a recording paper that is mounted on the carriage and loaded between the carriage and the platen is printed with letters or letters in a dot arrangement. A recording comprising: a print head for printing figures; a plurality of sets of dot arrays are provided on the print head; each dot array is arranged in a different direction with respect to the moving direction of the carriage; Device.