JPS6327889A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

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

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Object of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device that outputs font data to an external device.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, a printing device uses a character generator (hereinafter referred to as C) that stores font data of printing characters internally.
When a print command is input from the connection port, the font data of the character specified by the print command is read out and printing is executed. As a result, by simply outputting a simple print command to the printing device, it is possible to print clearly in accordance with the font data no matter how complex the character is.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, even with the above-mentioned printing device, there are still problems other than -F, as follows.

Character font data has a huge amount of information. In particular, kanji are complex characters that require high resolution to express, and the amount of information increases proportionally. Conventionally, printing devices that have such a large amount of information internally simply use that information for internal printing. Therefore, in order to display characters on a CRT of a computer or the like, the computer or the like must have its own built-in CG, which is extremely disadvantageous and uneconomical.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, and provides an inexpensive and economical printing device that can make a huge amount of font data, which is built-in portrait information, available for various external uses. Its purpose is to.

Structure of the Invention [Means for Solving the Problems] The means configured in the present invention to solve the above problems are as shown in the basic configuration diagram of FIG. Port C1 and a font data storage section C that stores font data of print characters.
2, a printing unit C3 that prints on a print medium based on the font data, and a font stored in the font data storage unit C2 according to a print command input from the external device E or XT via the connection port C1. In a printing device having a control section C4 that reads data and outputs the font data to the printing section C3, when a predetermined command is input to the control section C4 via the connection port C1, the font data is outputted to the printing section C3. The gist of the present invention is a printing device characterized by being equipped with a font data output section C4-A that outputs font data stored in a data storage section C2 to an external device EX via the connection port C1.

[Operation] When a predetermined command is input from the external device EXT, the printing device of the present invention outputs the font data stored in the font data storage section C2 to the external device EX via the connection port C1. That is, the information of the font data storage section C2 is not used as information only for the printing section C3, but is provided for use by the external device EXT.

Hereinafter, it will be explained in detail by giving examples.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electric circuit of a printing device 10 according to an embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a basic routine executed in the printing section ff1lo.

As shown in the figure, the printing device 10 is electrically connected to an external device 20 by connecting a predetermined cable to a connector 11. The operation of the printing unit 12, which includes a well-known platen, print head, paper feed mechanism, etc., is controlled by a drive signal from a drive circuit 13.

A logic operation circuit centered on the CPU 14 controls the operation of the drive circuit 13 according to the exchange of information via the connector 11, and stores programs such as basic routines to be described later and tables used in the programs. A ROM 15 for storing temporal information, a RAM 16 for storing temporal information, and a CG 17 for storing font data of all characters printed by the printing section 12.

The printing device 10 having the above configuration has standard operation modes such as test printing and page feed, and operates as follows in the basic routine (FIG. 3) governing normal operations.

When the CPU 14 enters the processing of this routine, initial settings such as clearing the buffer area of the RAM 16 and returning the print head of the printing unit 12 to the reference position are performed (S100).
The code output from the external device 20 to the connector 11 is input (S110). If this input code is a printing code (S120>, the CPU 14 converts the font data of the character specified by the printing code into C
Based on the data read from G17, the printing section 12
A so-called printing process is executed to output a control output to the drive circuit 13 in order to operate the 5il (3130), and then the 5il
Return to the process of o.

On the other hand, if the code entered above is not a print code, 3
If it is determined in step 120, it is determined whether or not the code is a predetermined output code (5140), and since it is impossible to operate on the input code if it is not an output code, the process returns to step 5110 and output. Only when it is determined that the code is a code, the following output process (S150) is executed.

When the CPU 14 determines that the currently input output code requires font data of a specific character based on the output code decoding table stored in the ROM 15 in advance, the CPU 14 converts the font data into CG.
17 and sends it to the connector 11 external device 20
Output to. In addition, when it is determined that the output code decoding result requires font data for all characters 1 or a predetermined range of characters (for example, second-level kanji, etc.), the storage areas of the corresponding CG17 are sequentially read out. It outputs to the connector 11 and responds to requests from the external device 20.

That is, this printing device is capable of not only printing processing in which the font data of the CG 17 is used to control the operation of the printing unit 12, but also output processing in which the font data of the CG 17 is outputted to the external device 20 via the connector 11. Therefore, the external device 20 can easily input a huge amount of valuable information and can be used for various purposes.

FIGS. 4A, 4B, and 4C show examples of system usage to which the present printing apparatus 10 is applied.

As shown in the figure, the font data of this printing device can be read freely by the host computer HC, which is an external device, All you have to do is display similar characters ri; MJ, etc. on the HC and modify them to create the font data for the purpose of ``Ei''.With this configuration, if the CG has font data. It is possible to easily create font data even for complex characters.Usually, the font data for each character for CRT in the host computer HC has a resolution of 16 x 16 dots, and the resolution for the printing device is 16 x 16 dots. 24×24 dots.Therefore, it is impossible to create font data for a printing device using the CG built in the host computer, and the above usage is extremely useful.

In addition, as shown in (B), the HC can himself create the CG for CRT display.
Even if you do not have HC, all CG contents of the printing device 10
It is only necessary to transfer the information to the internal RAM disk, and the information can be used effectively and the system can be constructed at low cost.

Furthermore, if the contents of the CG of the printing device 10 are transferred to the external storage of the HC as shown in Figure (C), it is possible to freely change or modify the contents of the CG or make it available for use in other devices. Open.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not equally limited to this embodiment, and it goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented in various forms without departing from the gist thereof.

As described in detail with reference to the embodiments, the printing device of the present invention can output font data to an external device, so that a huge amount of information (font data) can be freely used. This is an extremely useful and economical printing device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram showing the basic configuration of the printing device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an electric circuit block diagram of the printing device of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the basic routine of the embodiment.
Fig. 4 (A>, (B)). (C) shows an explanatory diagram of an application example of the printing device of the same embodiment. EXT... External device C1... Connection port C2.
... Font data storage section C3... Printing section C4... Control section C4-A.
...Font data output unit 10...Printing device 14...CPU 17...
CG

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A connection port connected to an external device, a font data storage unit storing font data of a printing character, a printing unit that prints on a print medium based on the font data, and the a control unit that reads font data stored in the font data storage unit and outputs the font data to the printing unit according to a print command input from an external device through a connection port; The unit includes a font data output unit that outputs font data written in the font data storage unit to an external device via the connection port when a predetermined command is input through the connection port. A printing device characterized by: