JPS6349636B2 - - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a balance by setting a prearranged number of characters of a print column in CPU beforehand and printing with an inter-character space provided at a uniform pitch when the actual number of printed characters is smaller than the prearranged number of characters. CONSTITUTION:In a printing device of an electronic scale equipped with a nonimpact printer such as a thermosensitive printer, etc. when the commodity name print column of a label is printed, the prearranged number of characters in a commodity name column that is printed in dots D1 to D230 is set beforehand in CPU. When the number of characters to be printed is smaller than the prearranged number, characters are printed at a uniform space. When the number of characters to be printed is large, printing is performed after the omission of part of an alignment. The same manner applies to the number of lines to be printed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method for setting the printing interval in the product name printing column of a label issued from a printing device of an electronic scale equipped with a non-impact printer.

Conventionally, printing devices for electronic scales have adopted a non-pact printer method (a printing method that uses a magnet or other mechanical force to apply shock to the printing surface), which has limitations on the printed content, generates noise, and is difficult to print. It had drawbacks such as slow speed. As a way to solve these shortcomings, for example, a thermal printer that applies heat pulses to thermal paper to develop color can be applied to the printing device of an electronic scale to print various information such as the date, weight, unit price, price, etc. of the issued label. It was suggested that numbers be printed. However, the thermal printer applied to the printing device of electronic scales (hereinafter referred to as a label printer) is limited in its use to numbers and their auxiliary symbols, and the spacing between characters is always constant. When creating a space between and characters, a space of one or several characters was created by operating the space key, etc., and was used as a means of distinguishing between each display column. Parts that cannot be expressed with numbers, such as the product name field on labels, are not printed using thermal printers, even though there are many types and the number of characters varies and is not constant. However, methods such as printing using a rubber plate, etc., have been adopted, and there has been a problem in that the advantages of non-impact printers such as thermal printers cannot be utilized.

This invention was made in view of the above circumstances,
When a dot-type printer is used as a label printer, the product name field of the issued label is printed in a dot format, and the required number of characters is set in advance, and the actual number of printed characters increases or decreases from this required number of characters. The purpose of this is to issue labels that are well-balanced, easy to read, and have high applicability by adjusting the character spacing or omitting some of the character writing.

The present invention will be explained below based on the drawings. Figure 1 explains the concept of applying this invention to a label printer with a thermal printer.
Each character A, B, printed in the product name printing column of the label
C... is displayed by a dot matrix of 16 horizontally and 16 vertically, and 230 print heads D ₁ to D ₂₃₀ are arranged in one horizontal row, and each of these print heads D ₁ to _{D 230} is The areas corresponding to the letters A, B, and C inside are heated by heat pulses to develop color, and the central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as "central processing unit") with a built-in label printer determines which dots of the 16 x 16 dot matrix are to be heated. CP), and each letter A,
At the same time as printing B, C..., each character A, B,
2 print heads between C (for example, D ₁₇ ,
D ₁₈ , etc.). If each character A, B, C, etc. is arranged according to the example shown in Fig. 1, 230 print heads D ₁ -
For D ₂₃₀ , maximum characters (hereinafter referred to as required number of characters)
is (230 + 2) ÷ (16 + 2) = 12.888 or 12,
As shown in Fig. 1, when the leftmost character A is displayed by the print heads D ₁ to _{D 16} , the unused portion of the 16 print heads D ₂₁₅ to D ₂₃₀ is to the right of the 12th character L. arise. Also, if the number of characters in the product name printing column of the label is less than 12, for example 8, and the characters are printed from print head D ₁ as shown in Figure 1, the number of dots required to print 8 characters will be is 16 x 8 + (8 - 1) x 2 = 142, and there are 88 unused print heads D ₁₄₃ to D ₂₃₀ on the right side of the 8th character H, and a total of 8 characters are on the left side. The image becomes lopsided and difficult to see.

Therefore, in this invention, in order to adjust the interval X between each character according to the number of characters, the required number of characters in the line direction corresponding to the number of print heads is set in advance by the CPU, and then the number of characters to be printed is set as the required number of characters. The first method is to print at equal intervals X when the CPU detects that the number of characters to be printed exceeds the required number of characters, and The gist of the present invention is to achieve the above-mentioned object by the second method of printing by omitting the copy. Note that in the following description, characters include spaces.

First, the first method will be explained in detail. The number of dots in the character arrangement direction of the product name printing field on the label is
Td, the number of characters is N, the number of dots required in the character arrangement direction when writing one character is a, the number of dots for the interval X between adjacent characters is x, the extra space to be left at the front end (left end) in the character arrangement direction is K ₁ , and the extra interval left at the rear end is K ₂ , these relationships are expressed by the following formula: Td=aN+x(N-1)+(K ₁ +K ₂ )...(1). Furthermore, K ₁ and K ₂ are always positive, and if we decide that K ₂ is the same as K ₁ or one dot larger than K 1, then the relationship between them is K ₂ ≧K ₁ ≧0...Equation (2) 1 ≧(K ₂ −K ₁ )≧0 ... Represented by formula (3), when the number of characters N is changed, a, K ₁ ,
We are looking for K ₂ .

[Example 1] This will be explained with reference to FIG. In Figure 1
We assumed that the required number of characters N when Td=230, a=16, and x=2 is 12, but conversely, we decided N=12 first and set x≒K ₁ +K ₂ as x, K ₁ , K ₂ (1)
Transforming the equation, Td=aN+x(N-1)+x...Equation (4) =aN+xN x=Td-aN/N...Equation (5) =230-16×12/12 =3.16666 That is, x=3 After calculating and allocating the fractional part to K ₁ and K ₂ , we transform equation (1) to get K ₁ + K ₂ = Td−aN−x(N−1) …(6) formula = 230−16×12− 3 (12-1) = 5, that is, K ₁ = 2, K ₂ = 3 are calculated, and as shown in Figure 2, the distance between each letter A to L is X, the left margin Y of letter A, and the right side of letter L. The margin Z is determined.

[Example 2] Next, as shown in Figure 3, to explain the case where the number of characters in the product name is 4, from the above formula (5), x = 230 - 16 × 4/4 = 41.5, that is, x = 41, From equation ( ₆ ), K ₁ and K ₂ are calculated as follows: _{K 1 +} K ₂ = 230-16 Good character distribution is made.

Next, the second method will be explained. If there are 230 print heads D ₁ to _{D 230} as shown in Figure 1, the number of dots required to write one character is 16, and the number of dots at the interval X between each character A to L is 2. If limited, the number of characters printed will be 12 or less. This second method is a solution when the number of characters in the product name exceeds 12, and attempts to increase the number of displayed characters N by reducing a and x in equation (1) as much as possible. . For example, the character A shown in FIG _.
Even if D ₂ , D ₁₅ , and D ₁₆ are omitted, it can still be read as "cow." Therefore, if the number of characters in the product name printing column to be printed exceeds the required number of characters, transform equation (4) to obtain N=Td/(a-Co)+x......The range of the number of characters to be printed using equation (7). (where Co is the optional number of dots).

[Example 3] As shown in Figure 4, to explain the case where the number of characters in the product name is 14, by transforming equation (7), (a-Co)+x=Td/N (a-Co)= Td/N-x Here, if Td=230, x=1, N=14, a-Co=230/14-1 = 15.428571 In other words, omit either one dot at the left or right end of each character and write a dot. The number 15 will display one character. Also, K ₁ , K ₂ at this time
From equation (6), K ₁ + K ₂ = 230-15×14-(14-1) = 7 Therefore, K ₁ = 3, K ₂ = 4, which can be displayed as shown in Figure 4. can.

[Example 4] It is assumed that each character is predetermined so that it can be read even if the dots on the printer head are omitted, two dots on the left and right, as shown in Figure 1 for "Cow" and "Meat." For example, from equation (7), the maximum number of characters that can be displayed in the product name display column is N=230/(16-4)+1=17.692, that is, 17, and in this case, K ₁ =5, K ₂ =5.

As described above, the first and second methods of the present invention set the printing interval in the row direction of the product name display field. FIG. 6 is a flowchart representing these methods.

By the way, these first and second methods can also be applied to setting the printing interval in the column direction of the product name display field, that is, in the direction orthogonal to the character arrangement of the product name display field.

First, an application example of the first method in the column direction will be described. The number of dots in the direction perpendicular to the character arrangement in the product name printing field on the label is Te, the number of lines is P,
If the number of dots in the direction perpendicular to the character arrangement required to write one character is b, the number of dots for the line spacing n is r, and the number of dots in the margins at both top and bottom ends of the line are S ₁ and S ₂ , then This relationship is expressed by Te=bP+r(P-1)+( _L1 + _L2 )...(8).

[Example 5] If Te is 41 and b is 16 (see Figure 1), the maximum number of lines is 2, and from equation (8), r (P-1) + (S ₁ + S ₂ ) = Te- bP = 41-16 x 2 = 9 is obtained, and r (2-1) + L ₁ + L ₂ = 9 r + L ₁ + L ₂ = 9, so r = 5, S ₁ = 2, S ₂ = 2. In this case, P is the required number of lines to be printed, and in this case, the number of lines to be printed is 2 or 1. Next, an application example of the second method in the column direction will be described.

In this method, parts of the upper and lower parts (for example, the lower ends) of each character A, B, C, etc. as shown in FIG. 1 are omitted when printing. As shown in Figure 5, if you print more than the required number of lines, (8)
Transforming the equation, bP=Te−r(P−1)−(S ₁ +S ₂ ) b=Te−r(P−1)−(S ₁ +S ₂ )/P ……(9) where P = 3, S ₁ = 0, S ₂ = 0, Te = 41 then b = 41 - r x 2/3 = 13.666 - 2/3 r That is, if b = 13 and assigning a fraction to the line spacing,
r=1. Figure 5 shows the case where the number of dots in the height direction of the three lines of "Special Sale", "Pork Outer Thigh", and "7th Anniversary of Opening" is each 13, and the number of dots between the lines is 1. It is something. In this case, since each character A, B, C, . . . is printed with 13 dots, the lower part is omitted by three dots. The bottom edge of the character (or both top and bottom edges) like this
Japanese is still legible even if a portion of the text is omitted, and the third method takes advantage of this characteristic unique to Japanese (for example, in Figure 1, the bottom edge is omitted by three dots). (can also be read as beef).

In Figures 1 to 5, the heads D ₁ to _{D 230} of the thermal printer are arranged in a horizontal line, and the heads D ₁ to D ₂₃₀ or the labels to be printed are sequentially fed vertically. However, it is also applicable to other dot-type printers that print by dots or print by moving the print head horizontally, and the size of each character is not uniform. For example, it can also be applied when numbers, kana, etc. are made smaller than kanji characters.

As explained above, in the present invention, when the number of characters in the product name printing field to be printed by dots is less than the required number of characters, the dot spacing with a margin in the line direction corresponding to the difference between these numbers is determined, and the dot spacing is calculated. Allocate the extra dot spacing evenly between each character in dot units. On the other hand, if the number of characters to be printed exceeds the required number of characters, find the insufficient dot spacing in the line direction that corresponds to the difference between those numbers, and Since the printing interval is set by omitting some dots of each character by the insufficient dot interval, the following effects are achieved.

Even if the number of characters in the product name printing field is arbitrary, the central processing unit of the electronic scale can be used to print the label in a well-balanced manner.

Since printing is possible even when the maximum number of characters is exceeded, the display range of the product name printing field can be expanded.

It adjusts the spacing of characters including spaces uniformly, that is, it treats special characters such as spaces and kanji and hiragana in the same way and adjusts the spacing uniformly, so it is ideal for printing in the product name printing field of labels. You can set the printing interval.
In other words, the product name to be printed in the limited size product name printing field may be "beef", "loin", etc., such as "beef loin for sukiyaki", etc.
There are product names that include spaces between multiple words, such as "for sukiyaki." In such cases, spaces should be treated in the same way as hiragana, kanji, etc., and the spacing between them should be adjusted evenly. is suitable for label printing in terms of visibility and balance.

By the way, if you adjust the space between words while keeping the spacing between the letters of a word constant, as in normal text editing, the letters of the word will be packed together and only the space between the words will become larger. It becomes faded and difficult to see, making it unsuitable for printing on labels.

If the actual number of printed characters is less than the required number of characters, the extra dot spacing corresponding to the difference between them will be distributed evenly between each character (including between spaces, which are special characters).
The spacing between each character can be set in multiple steps in the smallest dot unit. Therefore,
The interval adjustment range is extremely wide, and the optimum printing interval can be set for each of a wide variety of product names.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The drawings show an example in which the present invention is applied to a thermal printer. Fig. 1 is a conceptual diagram, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of the distribution of print heads when the required number of characters are printed, and Fig. 3 is a diagram of the print head distribution. An explanatory diagram when the number of characters is less than the required number, Figure 4 is an explanatory diagram when the number of printed characters exceeds the required number, Figure 5 is an explanatory diagram when the number of printed lines exceeds the required number, and Figure 6 is an explanatory diagram when the number of printed characters exceeds the required number. This is a flowchart showing the operation of this invention. A~L...Character, _D1 ~ _D230 ...Print head,
X... Spacing, n... Line spacing.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. The required number of characters to be printed including spaces is set in advance in the central processing unit with respect to the line direction in the product name print column printed by dots, and then the line direction in the product name print column is set in advance. The central processing unit compares the actual number of characters including spaces to be printed with the required number of characters in the line direction, and if the actual number of characters is less than or equal to the required number of characters, the difference between those numbers is calculated. A printing interval is set by determining a margin of dot spacing in the line direction corresponding to , and allocating the margin of dot spacing equally in dot units between characters including spaces adjacent to each other in the line direction. How to set the printing interval for the product name printing field on the label. 2. Regarding the line direction in the product name printing column printed by dots, the required number of characters to be printed including spaces is set in advance in the central processing unit, and then the space to be printed in the line direction in the product name printing column is set in advance. The actual number of characters included and the required number of characters in the line direction are compared by the central processing unit, and if the actual number of characters exceeds the required number of characters, the number of characters in the line direction corresponding to the difference between those numbers is compared by the central processing unit. The printing interval in the product name printing field of a label is characterized in that the missing dot spacing is determined and the printing spacing is set by omitting some dots of each character including spaces in the line direction by the missing dot spacing. How to set up.