JPS6393272A - Gradation recording device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain a uniform, sharp gradation recording with a simple constitution by dividing one picture element into plural parts in the feed direction of a recording paper based on gradation instruction information transmitted from a recording controller controlling recording, varying the are of the one picture element and carrying out the gradation recording. CONSTITUTION:The terminal recording paper 13 is made of a base paper 12 and a coloring layer 11. A thermal head heating element 10 consists of plural heating elements with width of one picture element, and said element 10 has one third of said width in the moving direction of the recording paper. Since plural thermal head heating elements 10 are provided for one dot line, they are selectively conducted based on recorded data to form a dot pattern. When the thermal head heating element 10 is conducted, the temperature of a thermal head rises. When said temperature exceeds the coloring temperature of the coloring layer 11 composing the recording sheet 13, the element 10 colors in a regulated color. If the temperature rises further, the coloring density is constant. Time required for feeding one picture element in the recording paper 13 is divided into three portions. The width of a conductive pulse for the thermal head is set so that the thermal head heating element 10 is heated beyond the temperature of the coloring layer 11.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a gradation recording device, and particularly to a line-type gradation S3 recording device suitable for image recording.

[Conventional technology]

Traditionally, gradation? As a method for recording and publicizing the images possessed, multiple = + proposals have been made, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 56-92080
number is known. This system forms a gradation image by applying current to a thermal head with multiple heating elements with a pulse width proportional to the image density, and changes the energy supplied to the heating elements in accordance with the image density. Therefore, the recording density can be directly changed steplessly. Also,
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 180861/1986 is known as a method in which one pixel is composed of a plurality of dots and expressed in steps θ1M2. This makes it possible to express a large number of gradations in one pixel by varying the energy applied to each dot, displaying three or more density values, and assigning each dot from a low density value to a high density value. This is what I did.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Of the above conventional techniques, is the former directly recording density? If the image density can be changed steplessly and the image density is low, there is a problem in that recording blurring occurs due to variations in the coloring temperature of the medium, and recording quality deteriorates. Further, in the latter case, since the dot density increases in the main scanning and sub-scanning, there is a problem that not only the thermal head becomes expensive but also the processing time for gradation recording takes a long time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a gradation recording device that can obtain good recording quality and has high processing performance.

[Means for solving problems]

The above purpose is to provide multiple heating elements for one dot line,
This heating element? In a gradation recording device that records gradations of characters and figures by selectively energizing, the feeding timing of the thermosensitive recording paper and the energization timing of the heating element are changed based on gradation instruction information sent from the recording control device.
This is achieved by providing a gradation recording device that changes the pixel area.

[Effect]

The recording control device sends recording dot pattern 7 data including recording density information to the recording device control section.

The recording device control section decodes the received recording tone pattern data and controls paper feeding timing and recording timing so that one pixel is divided into one segment in the recording paper feeding direction and recording is performed according to the specified recording density. The energization time of the heating element is set so that the temperature of the heating element is sufficiently higher than the coloring temperature of the thermosensitive recording paper. On the other hand, the feeding speed is slowed down so that the feeding distance of the recording paper within the energization time corresponds to the multi-component division of one pixel.

As a result, one pixel is divided into a plurality of parts in the paper feeding direction and a dot pattern is recorded, so that area gradation recording is performed.

〔Example〕

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a gradation recording apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a recording control device for controlling recording, and 2 is a recording device control section for controlling the recording device.

The recording device control section 2 includes a CPU 3, an interface control circuit 4, a thermal head control circuit 6, and a paper feed motor control circuit 5. The recording device control unit 2 is connected to the recording control device 1 via an interface control circuit 4, and receives recording data and gradation instructions from the recording control device 1. The received recording data and gradation command are decoded by the CPU 3 in the recording apparatus control section 2. The thermal head control circuit 6 controls the thermal head in the recording mechanism section 9, and the paper feed motor control circuit 5 controls the paper feed motor 8 in the recording mechanism section 9. Then, the CPU 3 connects to the thermal head via the thermal head control circuit 6, and sends out the decoded recording data and the energizing pulse 3. Furthermore, the paper feed motor control circuit 5 connects the paper feed motor 8 to B and VC, and sends out a paper feed timing pulse 2.

Next, the operation of gradation recording will be explained with reference to FIGS. 2 to 41'A. The thermal recording paper 16 is composed of a base paper 12 and a coloring PI 111. The thermal head heating element 10 is composed of a plurality of heating elements with a width of one pixel, and has a width of A with respect to the recording paper moving direction. Now, while moving the recording paper 13 in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 2 and the third factor, the thermal head heating element 10 is energized for a certain period of time at the timing shown in FIG. 4. As described above, since a plurality of thermal head heating elements 10 are provided in one dot line, they are selectively energized based on recording data to form a dot pattern. When the thermal head heating element 10 is energized, the temperature of the thermal head rises, and when it exceeds the coloring temperature of the coloring layer 11 constituting the recording paper 13, a specified color is produced, and even if the temperature rises further, the color density remains constant. It is. The feeding time for one pixel of the recording paper 15 is 3
The thermal head energizing pulse width T2 is set so that the temperature of the thermal head heating element 10 reaches a temperature sufficiently exceeding the coloring temperature of the coloring layer 11. Further, the one-pixel feed time T1 is set to be T2×3×2. In addition, the thermal head energization pulse width T2 and 1 pixel feed time T1
is calculated by the CPU 3 using a known method.

In this way, when the thermal head heating element 10 is selectively energized according to the recorded data and the energization pulse,
A pattern as shown in FIG. 3 is obtained. Here, the colored portion 14 and the non-colored portion 15 are recorded so as to correspond to the dot pattern 1'IJ. In this embodiment, since one pixel is divided into three parts and recorded, it is possible to perform pseudo gradation recording of four gradations.

In this embodiment, one pixel is divided into six in the feeding direction of the recording paper, and four gradations are recorded. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and by appropriately selecting the heating element size and one pixel size, Furthermore, multi-gradation recording can be performed. In addition, if binary values are sufficient, the paper feed time for one pixel is TI =
By setting T2×2, high-speed recording is possible.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, since the recording paper is divided only in the feeding direction,
It has ample driving margin and is able to record uniform and clear gradations without being affected by variations in the coloring temperature of the medium or the performance of the thermal head. Furthermore, a thermal head with a relatively simple structure can be used, and the number of dots in one dot line can be reduced, resulting in improved throughput. Furthermore, when the number of gradation levels is small, it is possible to increase the recording paper feeding speed accordingly.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a gradation recording device according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a side view for explaining the relationship between recording paper and a thermal head, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing the relationship between recording paper and a thermal head. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the relationship between the thermal heads and the recording results, and FIG. 4 is a timing chart for explaining the recording operation. 1... Recording control device, 2... Recording device control section,
3... CPU, 4... Interface control circuit, 5... Paper feed motor control circuit, 6
... Thermal head control circuit, 7... Thermal head, 8... Paper feed motor, 9... Recording device mechanism section, 10... Thermal head heating element, 11...
- Coloring layer, 12...Base paper, 13...Recording paper.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a gradation recording device that is equipped with multiple heating elements for 1.1 dot line and records characters and figures in gradation by selectively energizing these heating elements, the gradation sent from the recording control device that controls recording is used. A gradation recording device characterized in that one pixel is divided into a plurality of parts in a recording paper feeding direction based on gradation instruction information, and gradation recording is performed by changing the area of each pixel.