KR100193849B1 - Serial printer with adjacent dot control - Google Patents

Abstract

1. TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a serial printer having an adjacent dot control device.

2. The technical problem to be solved by the invention

Simple hardware ensures that adjacent dots on a printhead do not print at the same time in draft mode printing.

3. Summary of the solution of the invention

A control unit which converts input print data into an image and generates a control signal indicating a print mode of the printer, and images of adjacent dots which are successively printed when the print mode of the printer is received by receiving the image and the control signal. A neighbor dot control device which deletes and outputs an image, and outputs an image as it is in Elcu mode, an input / output interface that receives an image from the adjacent dot control device, and interfaces with a printing mechanism, and receives an image from the input / output interface It characterized in that it comprises a printing mechanism for performing the.

4. Important uses of the invention

The present invention can be usefully used in a serial printer.

Description

Serial printer with adjacent dot control

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to serial printers and, more particularly, to serial printers that do not simultaneously print adjacent dots in the printhead during draping mode printing.

In general, serial printers such as inkjet printers and dot printers can perform printing at various resolutions. For example, printing can be performed at a resolution such as 150 DPI or 300 DPI. In this case, the printing of 150DPI is generally referred to as a draft mode. The printing of the draft mode has a low resolution but a high printing speed as described above.

In the case of printing at 300 DPI, the printing is normally referred to as an LQ mode. At this time, the printing of the elcu mode is high in image quality as described above, but the printing time is long.

Now, the arguments of the Elcu and Draft modes are described. First, FIG. 1 shows a printhead of an inkjet printer, which is one of serial printers. The print head has an odd nozzle and an even nozzle. The odd nozzles of the print head are first, third and fifth second (N-1) -1 and second N-1 nozzles (10, 14, 18, 22 and 26) shown in FIG. The odd nozzles of the print head are the second, fourth, sixth, and second (N-1) second N nozzles 12, 16, 20, 24, 28 as shown in FIG.

In addition, FIG. 2 illustrates a test factor pattern for examining the factors of the ElQ and the draft mode. The pattern as shown in FIG. 2 indicates that the print head drives and prints nozzles corresponding to all dots from column 1 to column 6 to column 7. Accordingly, in order to print the pattern, the print head drives and prints nozzles corresponding to all rows corresponding to one column, and drives and prints nozzles corresponding to all rows corresponding to two columns. Again, printing should be performed by driving nozzles corresponding to all rows corresponding to seven columns.

Accordingly, the print head is configured such that the dots adjacent to the pattern are all printed, so that the pattern can be printed only by driving the nozzle of every dot.

When printing the pattern in the Elcu mode, the print head continuously drives nozzles corresponding to adjacent dots. At this time, the print speed of the print head was not high because the printing speed of the El-Q mode was low even if the nozzle was continuously driven.

On the other hand, when printing the pattern in the drift mode, the print head continuously drives nozzles corresponding to adjacent dots. At this time, the nozzle is continuously driven, and the printing speed of the drift mode is fast, so that the print head driving frequency becomes very high.

The printhead drive frequency for the printhead to print normally has been limited. Accordingly, the print head did not normally print such a pattern in the drift mode.

In order to overcome the fact that a pattern composed of adjacent dots that are continuously printed as described above cannot be printed in the draft mode, one dot of the adjacent dots that are continuously printed is conventionally deleted to delete adjacent dots that are continuously printed. This prevents the printhead drive frequency from increasing. This allowed the print head to print normally.

As described above, the controller searches for whether there are adjacent dots that are continuously printed in the draft mode and deletes any adjacent dots that are continuously printed.

As described above, there was a difficulty in overloading the control unit, and the printing speed was lowered because the control unit had to perform the above-described process every time it was printed.

On the contrary, it has a memory for storing the fonts in the draft mode and the font in the Elcu mode, and converts the fonts in the draft mode into the image by reading them from the memory in the draft mode when the image is converted. You can also read from memory and convert it to an image.

Herein, the font of the draft mode is an image composed of images without adjacent dots that are continuously printed.

The above method does not overload the control unit, and the printing speed does not decrease. However, in order to perform the method, an expensive memory storing fonts according to each print mode must be provided.

As described above, in the case of printing a continuous image in the draft mode, eliminating the adjacent dots that are continuously printed by the software in the controller may cause an excessive load on the controller.

In addition, the method of using a different font according to the draft mode and the Elcu mode has a problem in that the cost increases due to the need for additional memory.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a serial printer having an adjacent dot control device that does not simultaneously print adjacent dots in the draft mode with simple hardware.

1 schematically shows a head of an inkjet printer.

2 shows the printing pattern.

3 is a block diagram of a serial printer having an adjacent dot control apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

4 is a block diagram of an adjacent dot control apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a detailed circuit diagram of the comparison unit of FIG. 4.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process of the controller of FIG. 4.

The present invention for achieving the above object is a control unit for converting the input print data into an image, generating a control signal indicating the print mode of the printer, and the print mode of the printer receives the image and the control signal in the draft mode And an adjacent dot control device which deletes and outputs any one of the images of the adjacent dots which are continuously printed, and outputs an image as it is in Elcu mode, an input / output interface that receives an image from the adjacent dot control device and interfaces with a printing mechanism. And a printing mechanism that receives an image from the input / output interface and performs printing.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the annexed drawings, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. And a detailed description of known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

3 is a block diagram of an ink jet printer having an adjacent dot control apparatus according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The controller 30 of FIG. 3 executes a program stored in the memory 32 to control each unit of the ink jet printer through the input / output interface 36. The memory 32 stores an execution program of the controller 30 and various initial data, and temporarily stores data according to the operation of the controller 30. The adjacent dot controller 34 removes specific data, that is, adjacent dots that are continuously printed, from the image input from the controller 30 when the control signal is input high from the controller 30 to the input / output interface 36. Enter it. When the control signal is low, the image input from the control unit 30 is input to the input / output interface 36 as it is.

The input / output interface 36 interfaces a signal input and output between the control unit 30 and the input / output devices, that is, the operation panel 38 and the printing mechanism 40. The operation panel 38 has a plurality of keys for inputting various commands to the CPU 30 and a display device for displaying various states by the control unit 30. The printing mechanism unit 40 prints an image according to the image input via the input / output interface 36 input under the control of the control unit 30 on the paper.

6 is a flowchart of a control unit 30 for controlling adjacent dots according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. When the print data is input from the host, the controller 30 performs step 52 of FIG. 6. In step 52 of FIG. 6, the controller 30 receives printing data. When the reception is completed, the controller 30 performs step 54. In step 54, the controller 30 converts the print data into image data. When the conversion of the data is completed, the controller 30 performs step 56. In step 56, the controller 30 searches whether the printing mode of the printer is the Elcu mode. In this case, if the printing mode of the printer is an El-Q mode, step (58) is performed, and if it is not an El-Q mode, step (60) is performed. In step (58), the control unit 30 transmits the control signal in the high state to the adjacent dot control device 34, and when the transmission is completed (step 62). In step 60, the control unit 30 transmits the control signal in the low state to the adjacent dot control device 34, and performs the step 62 when the transmission is completed.

In step 62, the controller 30 transmits the image data to the adjacent dot controller 34. In this case, the adjacent dot controller 34 receives the image and transmits the image to the printing mechanism 40 through the input / output interface 36 as it is when the control signal is high. If the control signal is in the low state, the image that is previously printed by searching the image is a printing dot, and when the image to be printed is a printing dot, the image to be printed is deleted, and then a printing mechanism ( To 40). In this case, the printing mechanism 40 prints an image according to an image input through the input / output interface 36.

Meanwhile, FIG. 4 illustrates the adjacent dot control device 34 in detail. The control signal shown in FIG. 4 is applied by the controller 30. The controller 30 provides the control signal in the high state in the draft mode, and provides the control signal in the low state in the Elcu mode. The first latch 42 of FIG. 4 receives and latches an image provided by the controller 30. Here, the printing dots, or black dots, are high, and the non-printing dots, i.e., back dots, are represented by low.

As used herein, a dot means that the print head is driven once, and thus, an image of one dot represents a driving state of 2N nozzles, respectively, as shown in FIG.

Accordingly, data corresponding to the image for driving the 2N nozzles is Ao to An-1, hereinafter referred to as An. Accordingly, An is input to the first latch 42. The first latch 42 latches An. The second latch 44 outputs a row in an initial state. The output of the second latch 44 is referred to as Bn. The second latch 44 is used to provide information about previously printed dots.

The outputs An and Bn of the first and second latches 42 and 44 are input to the input terminals A and B of the comparator 46, respectively. At this time, the comparator 46 outputs a row when the corresponding An and Bn are in the same logical state, and outputs An when the two images are not in the same logical state. The output of the comparator 46 is referred to as Bn 'and Bn' is input to the multiplexer 48.

FIG. 5 shows a detailed circuit diagram of the comparison unit 46. As shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 5, the comparator 46 includes AND gates AND0 to ANDn-1 and inverters INV0 to INVn-1 corresponding to the number of nozzles.

The A0 to An-1 are input to the corresponding AND gates AND0 to ANDn-1, respectively. The B0 to Bn are input to the corresponding AND gates AND0 to ANDn-1 through the corresponding inverters INV0 to INVn-1, respectively. As a result, when the B0 to Bn are high, the AND gates AND0 to ANDn-1 output a low. When the B0 to Bn are low, the AND gates AND0 to ANDn-1 correspond to the logic states of A0 to An. Generate the output.

On the other hand, the multiplexer 48 receives An and Bn 'and outputs An when the control signal is low, and outputs Bn when the control signal is high. The output of the multiplexer 48 is input to the third latch 50. The output of the third latch 50 is input to the input / output interface 36. The input / output interface 36 provides an output of the third latch 50 to the printing mechanism 40 to print a dot corresponding thereto.

That is, the output of the multiplexer 48 becomes the printing dot. The printing dot is again input to the second latch 44. Accordingly, the second latch 44 latches data for the previously printed dots. Accordingly, the second latch 44 provides the comparator 46 with data on the dots previously printed.

As such, when the dot to be printed previously and the dot to be printed are to be printed consecutively, the adjacent dot controller 34 deletes the dot to be printed at present, so that the printing mechanism 40 continuously prints the image to be printed. It is not entered.

As described above, the present invention is advantageous in that the adjacent dot control device is constructed of simple hardware, and the cost can be reduced without applying a load to the controller.

Claims (2)

In a serial printer having an adjacent dot control device, A control unit which converts the input print data into an image and generates a control signal indicating a print mode of the printer; A neighboring dot control device which receives the image and the control signal and deletes any one of the images of adjacent dots which are continuously printed when the print mode of the printer is the draft mode, and outputs the image as it is in Elcu mode; An input / output interface for receiving an image from the adjacent dot controller and interfacing to a printing mechanism; And a printing mechanism which receives an image from the input / output interface and performs printing. According to claim 1, wherein the adjacent dot control device, A latch unit for receiving and latching an image to be printed and a previously printed image; A comparison unit which receives an image to be printed and a previously printed image from the latch unit, and deletes and outputs the current printing image if both images are printing images; And an output unit for receiving the output of the comparator and the image to be printed at present and outputting the image input from the comparator if the control signal corresponds to the draft mode, and outputting the image to be printed at the same time if the control signal corresponds to the Elcu mode. Serial printer having an adjacent dot control device, characterized in that.