JPS63290756A - Serial printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print a high-quality reduced character with a simple construction, by providing a mechanism horizontally inclining a printing head or a head holder to vary under control a lengthwise dot pitch. CONSTITUTION:Dots 3-5 carry out a printing with heating elements etc. in a thermal head. In a printing head 2, (n) pieces of printing dots are aligned lengthwise in a line. A dot pitch varying control mechanism consists of a head holder 1, a rotating shaft 6 for inclining the head holder 1, and a gear 7 for transmitting a power for inclination. When a dot pitch P of the printing head 2 is not inclined, the pitch P is used as a lengthwise dot pitch in printing. When it is inclined by an angle of theta, a lengthwise dot pitch 10 in printing is cos theta-times the dot pitch P of the printing head. At this time, a lateral deviation is generated by the distance of P X sintheta, but a dot string can be printed vertically without inclination by shifting an electrical energy applying timing to each dot by the amount off P X sin theta/v (v represents the horizontally scanning speed of the printing head).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial printer that variably controls the vertical dot pitch of a print head in the serial printer.

Prior Art Conventionally, the vertical dot pitch of a print head is fixed by the print head, and the vertical dot pitch has not been variable controlled.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention In such a conventional structure, in order to change the size of the large letters, it was necessary to change the font structure of the characters.

This consumes software and a large amount of memory for font control. In addition, when enlarged, the roughness of the dots that make up the characters becomes noticeable, and when reduced, the number of dots that can be expressed decreases, resulting in a deterioration in character quality. For enlarging, a method to erase the roughness has been considered, but for reducing, no suitable method has been found.

The present invention aims to solve these problems, and aims to easily control the size of characters by changing the vertical dot pitch of the print head by controlling a mechanism.

Means for Solving the Problem In order to solve this problem, the present invention tilts the print head or a head holder that fixes the print head horizontally to the printing surface, and adjusts the vertical dot pitch in actual printing accordingly. change.

Operation With the above configuration, by shifting the application timing by PXsinθ/v (P is the dot pitch of the print head, V is the horizontal scanning speed of the print head) to each dot of the print head tilted by θ, it is possible to actually The vertical dot pitch to be printed is multiplied by Co11θ.

As a result, characters with a height multiplied by 0080 can be printed using a character font common to normal printing without deteriorating the character font.

Embodiment FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the longitudinal dot pitch variable control mechanism of the present invention. 3 to 6 are dots for printing heating elements, etc. in the thermal head, 2 is a print head in which n printing dots are arranged in a vertical line, 1 is a head holder for attaching the print head, and 6 is a A rotating shaft 7 is used to rotate the head holder so that it is tilted horizontally to the printing surface, and 7 is a gear that transmits power for rotating the head holder and tilting the head holder horizontally to the printing surface.

Next, the operation will be explained using FIGS. 2 and 3.

9 in FIG. 2 is the dot pitch P of the print head, and when it is not tilted, this is the vertical dot pitch in printing. Conventionally, there was no such tilting mechanism, so the dot pitch of the print head was fixed as the vertical dot pitch in printing. 1o is the vertical dot pitch in printing when the print head is tilted at an inclination angle θ of 8, and is a value obtained by multiplying the dot pitch of the print head by 0080. However, at this time, as in 11, P
Since a lateral shift occurs by sin θ, by shifting the timing of applying electrical energy to each dot by Px ain θ/V as shown at 12 in FIG. 3, the dot row can be printed vertically without being tilted.

Effects of the Invention As described above, according to the present invention, high-quality reduced characters can be printed with an extremely simple system configuration, and applications such as word processors with variable point characters can be considered, making it extremely useful.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing an embodiment of the longitudinal dot pitch variable control mechanism of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the longitudinal dot pitch variable control, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the timing of applying electrical energy. 1...Head holder, 2...Print head, 3-6...Dot, 6...Head holder rotation axis, 7... Rotating power gear. Name of agent: Patent attorney Toshio Nakao and one other person f-
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Claims (1)

[Claims] A print head with multiple print dots arranged vertically,
a head holder for attaching the print head;
A serial printer that includes a mechanism for tilting the print head or the head holder in the horizontal direction, and variably controls the dot pitch in the vertical direction.