JPS63307963A - Character printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To emphasize a character, desired by a user effectively by providing a color changeover means changing over the hue and color tone of a printer graphic according to the indication of a color control means and a printing means printing the character of a color determined by said color changeover means. CONSTITUTION:A color controller 4 outputs a color control signal 41 controlling the density of the color of a character on the basis of a character emphasizing control signal 31 transmitted from a CPU 3, and a character generator 5 outputs a character pattern signal 51 on the basis of a character code 32 input from the CPU 3. A control section 6 is composed of an input buffer 2, the CPU 3, the color controller 4 and the character generator 5. A color changeover device 7 outputs a changeover signal 71 changing over the color to a color selected by a printing-material control section 8 on the basis of the color control signal 41 outputted from the color controller 4. A printer section 9 receives the character pattern signal 51 generated from the character generator 5, receives an output-position control signal 33 from the CPU 3, and receives the changeover signal 71 from the color changeover device 7, and prints a character pattern at a specified position on a paper in accordance with these signals.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a character printing device, and more particularly to a character printing device that can control the hue and tone of characters.

[Prior Art] Conventional character printing devices such as laser printers output characters on paper based on instructions from an external device such as a host computer. An example of the printout of a conventional character printing device is
This will be explained with reference to FIG.

FIG. 4A is an example of normal character printout. In the figure, when an external device specifies a character, a pattern corresponding to this character is called from a pattern storage area, and the character is vocalized on paper according to this character pattern.

FIG. 4B is an example of printout of "thin characters".

In the same figure, if you want to weaken the tone of the characters, you can specify "thin characters" using a command, etc., and use the pattern storage area where the "thin character" patterns are stored, separately from the normal character patterns. Call out the letter pattern and write it on paper.
It was printing out "thin characters".

FIG. 4C is an example of printout of "bold characters".

The figure is an example of printing characters with thicker characters in order to emphasize the characters.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, in order to print by changing the degree of emphasis of a character in a conventional character printing device, it is necessary to print by changing the thickness of the character. In order to do this, it was necessary to access a storage area for character patterns designed with different thicknesses.

Therefore, in a character printing device that has such a character emphasis function, different character patterns must be prepared in the storage area depending on the degree of character emphasis, and the storage area needs to have a large capacity. . Therefore, if a character pattern corresponding to the specified degree of character emphasis is not prepared in the storage area, the character cannot be emphasized.

Furthermore, when emphasizing characters by making their lines thicker, for example, characters with a large number of squares, etc., may be crushed and become unclear, making them difficult to read.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, to make it possible to change the tone of characters according to the degree of emphasis of the characters, to make the characters easy to read even if the number of squares is large, and to improve character processing. An object of the present invention is to provide a simplified character printing device.

Means for Solving Problem E] In order to achieve such an objective, the character printing device of the present invention determines whether or not to emphasize characters based on character information input from an external device. , a control means for controlling character information, a character generation means for generating a character pattern according to instructions from the control means, a color control means for controlling hue and tone when printing characters, and according to instructions from the color control means,
The present invention is characterized by comprising a color switching means for switching the hue and tone of printed characters, and a printing means for printing characters in a color determined by the color switching means.

[Function] According to the present invention, by appropriately controlling the hue and tone of the characters, it is possible to effectively emphasize the characters that the user is interested in. Also, if you control the color attributes appropriately,
Even in the case of kanji characters with a large number of characters, the characters will not be crushed or blurred, and the difficulty in reading them will be resolved.

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a character printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention using a color printer as an example. In FIG. 1, 1 is a host computer that generates character data (character code) and control commands (control code); is the character data (character code) input from the host computer 1 and the control signal (
3 is a character emphasis signal 311 character code 3 which analyzes the input data stored in the input buffer 2 and controls the degree of character emphasis.
2 and an output position control signal 3 for printing at a predetermined paper position.
CPt1 consists of a general-purpose microprocessor that generates
, 4 is a color controller that outputs a color control signal 41 that controls the color density of characters based on the character emphasis control signal 31 sent from the CPU 3; A character generator 6 outputs a pattern signal 51, an input buffer 2. CPII3. This is a character generation control section consisting of a color controller 4 and a character generator 5.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a switching signal 7 for switching to a color selected by a printing material control unit 8, which will be described later, based on a color control signal 41 from the color controller 4.
This is a color switching device that outputs 1. Here, the printing material control section 8 controls the color of toner in the case of a laser printer, and controls the color of ink in the case of an inkjet printer. Note that the printing material control unit 8 is prepared with toners or inks of a plurality of colors. 9 receives a character pattern signal 51 generated from the character generator 5, an output position control signal 33 from the CPII 3, and a switching signal 71 from the color switching device 7, and based on these signals, a predetermined pattern on the paper is selected. This is a printer unit that prints a character pattern at the position. Note that 31, 32, 33, 41, 51 and 71 also mean signal lines.

A method of controlling a character printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the control method of this embodiment. When output processing is started, the host computer 1 starts transmitting the data code. First, in step 51, character data stored in the manual buffer 2 is read one unit code at a time. Next, in step S2, it is determined whether all the input data stored in the manual buffer 2 has been printed. If it is determined that the printing has been completed, the printing is ended, and if it is determined that the printing is not completed, it is determined in step S3 whether or not the sent character code data means control information. If it does not mean control information, a character pattern corresponding to the character code is printed in accordance with a preselected color in step S4, and the process returns to step S1. If it is determined that it means control information, it is determined in step s5 whether the control information indicates the degree of emphasis of the characters. If it is determined that the degree of emphasis is not to be instructed, control processing is performed in accordance with the control content in step S6. If it is determined that the degree of emphasis is to be instructed, the density is controlled in accordance with which intensity has been specified in step S7, and a color corresponding to the density is selected and switched in step S8. As a result, characters to be printed thereafter will be printed in this selected color.

FIG. 3 shows an example of print output when determining at which density the characters are emphasized in step S7.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3C show examples of light, medium, and dark color printout, respectively. Normally, the pattern shown in FIG. 3B is used for printing.

In step S7 of the embodiment, when expressing a "weak tone", the pattern shown in FIG. 3A is printed out, and when expressing a "strong tone", the pattern L shown in FIG. 3C is printed out. When choosing which darkness to use, the ink or toner color is assigned a lightness value, for example, a lightness number. Print.

In this embodiment, the brightness of the color attributes was appropriately controlled according to the degree of emphasis of the characters, and the hue corresponding to the brightness was selected and printed.

However, the present invention is not limited to this example. In other words, by appropriately controlling the three attributes of color: hue, brightness, and saturation, it is possible to change the degree of emphasis on characters.For example, when using red, which gives a strong psychological impression, By appropriately controlling red with high saturation and red with low saturation in accordance with the brightness, it is also possible to change the degree of emphasis of characters.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, by appropriately controlling the hue and tone of the characters, it is possible to effectively emphasize the characters that are of interest to the user. Furthermore, if the color attributes are appropriately controlled, even Chinese characters with a large number of characters will not be crushed or blurred, and the difficulty in reading them will be resolved.

Further, according to the present invention, since the characters are emphasized by changing the hue and tone of the characters, it is possible to print without having to access storage areas for character patterns with different designs. Therefore, there is an advantage that the ROM can be saved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a character printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, using a color printer as an example. FIG. 2 shows control 1 of the character printing device shown in FIG.
Host computer, 2...input buffer, 3...cpu. 4... Color controller, 5... Character generator, 6... Character generation control section, 7... Switching device, 8... Printing material control section, 9... Printer section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Control means for determining whether or not to emphasize characters based on character information input from an external device and controlling the character information; and generating a character pattern according to instructions from the control means. a character generating means; a color control means for controlling the hue and tone when printing the characters; a color switching means for switching the hue and tone of the printed characters in accordance with instructions from the color control means; 1. A character printing device comprising: printing means for printing characters in a different color.