JPH0242073B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a print control method for a printer, and more particularly to a print control method for automatically aligning the right ends of print lines.

[Technology background]

Generally, when printing text created with a word processor or the like using a printer, an automatic line right alignment function (AUTO JUSTIFY) is used to control the right end of each printed line to be vertically aligned.

Automatic line right alignment control is widely applied to the printing of publications such as newspapers and books, but the method is
Adjust the spacing between letters in a word (called character space) and the spacing between words (called word space) to calculate a value that will bring the right edge to the specified position. , to correct the print position. In FIG. 1, indicates a word space and indicates a character space. The easiest way to right-justify lines is to correct them using only word spaces. But usually,
The method is to prioritize word space correction while also correcting character space. This is based on aesthetic judgment.

However, the pitch between characters varies depending on the type of printed font, such as pica pitch (1/10 inch), elite pitch (1/12 inch), micro pitch (1/15 inch), etc. It is useful to change the character spacing to right-align lines in sentences such as "W" where proportional spacing is used to provide optimal spacing for each printed character when the size is different. It's bad.

For the above reasons, if you simply prioritize word space while correcting character space, words will look too close together, or adjacent characters will overlap. There were problems such as.

[Object and structure of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to realize an automatic line right alignment control function that performs optimal correction taking into consideration the type of character pitch and proportional spacing.

In order to achieve the above object, the configuration of the present invention corrects the inter-word space in the print data with priority over the inter-character space when printing one line of data stored in the print buffer, and corrects the inter-word space. In a printer equipped with a print control unit that aligns and prints the right edge by also correcting the inter-character space when the correction is insufficient, the first method instructs the print pitch based on the print type. A display section;
A second display section for indicating the presence or absence of proportional spacing, and a limit value table in which correction limit values for each of word spacing and character spacing are optimally set to correspond to printing pitch and proportional spacing, According to the instruction output from the first and second display sections, the corresponding correction limit value is determined from the limit value table and outputted to the print control section, so that alignment printing of the right end is performed. It is said that

[Embodiments of the invention]

First, a conventional basic automatic row right alignment control method will be explained.

FIG. 2 is an example of a sentence that is subject to automatic line right alignment control, where is the word space, is the character space, is the current right end position, is the specified position, and x represents the excess distance.

Also, the number of word spaces in one print line is α,
When the number of character spaces is β, the correction value in word space units is A, the correction value in character space units is B, and the fine adjustment value is Δx, the following equation holds true.

x=A・α+B・β+Δx...(1) The values of x, α, and β are determined for each line to be printed, so substitute those values into formula (1) to satisfy formula (1). What is necessary is to determine A, B, and Δx.

For example, in the example sentence shown in Figure 2, α=9,
Since β=26, equation (1) becomes x=9A+26B+Δx (2).

FIG. 3 shows a conventional algorithm for determining A, B, and Δx in equation (1). Note that the limit values of word space correction value A and character space correction value B are defined as word space correction limit value Am and character space correction limit value, respectively.
Bm.

First, set B and Δx in equation (1) to zero, and x=A・α
shall be. Next, A is obtained by substituting the values of x and α into this. Note that numbers below the decimal point are rounded down. If the value of A obtained is AAm, the necessary correction is completed, Δx is obtained from x=A·α+Δx, and the correction process is executed. On the other hand, if A>Am, further word space correction is impossible, so character space correction is performed. Therefore, if B is set to l, and B>Bm is not true, then B in equation (1) is set to 1.
Recalculate the value of A from X=A・α+β. Regarding this value of A, check A>Am again.
If AAm, finish the correction, if A>Am, add 1 to the previous value of B (B=2), B>
Check Bm and recalculate the value of A in equation (1).

In this way, priority is given to word space correction at first, and if that does not meet the required amount of correction, character space correction is gradually increased, and word space correction is applied to the rest. . If the obtained A is AAm, the correction process is always finished, and B that satisfies BBm
If the value of is not obtained, no further correction is possible.

Conventionally, the word space correction limit value Am and the character space correction limit value Bm in this algorithm were constants, and therefore, although a certain print pitch resulted in a fine print correction,
Other printing pitches had the disadvantage that words appeared staggered or letters overlapped, and proportional spacing diminished its effectiveness.

In contrast, in the present invention, the word space correction limit value Am and the character space correction limit value Bm are
The drawbacks of the conventional method are improved by changing the word space correction ratio depending on the type of printing pitch and the presence or absence of proportional spacing.

For example, the following criteria are set for the correction limit values for the word space and character space.

(a) If no proportional spacing is applied, the word space correction limit.
Am is smaller than or equal to the character space correction limit value Bm. In other words, the spacing between words should not be too unbalanced with respect to the spacing between characters. For example, “LIFE”
In the case of a word that includes the narrow letter "I", the space before and after the "I" is larger than the space between other letters, so the smaller the space between words, the easier it is to recognize the word as a whole. This is because it becomes difficult to do so. Furthermore, as the printing pitch becomes shorter, the character space correction allowance decreases and the word space correction allowance increases, so the word space correction limit value Am is increased, and the character space correction limit value Bm Make smaller. In other words, restrictions on character space correction are strengthened.

(b) If proportional spacing is applied, proportional spacing provides the appropriate space before and after characters of different widths (for example, “I” or “W”).
Since there is a risk of imbalance due to character space correction, the word space correction limit value Am is changed to the character space correction limit value.
Set larger than Bm to limit correction by character space.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a correction limit value table created based on the above criteria. In the figure, values for the conventional method are also listed for comparison.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of one embodiment of the present invention,
In the figure, 1 is a print data buffer, 2 is a correction parameter calculation section, 3 is a space correction value calculation section, 4 is a character type display section, 5 is a proportional spacing display section, 6 is a space correction upper limit value table, and 7 is printing Represents a control unit.

The correction parameter calculation unit 2 calculates the print data for one line stored in the print data buffer 1, the character type pitch information Pi from the character type display unit 4, and the specified line length.
Based on Ls, the excess distance x, the number of word spaces α, and the number of character spaces β are calculated.

The space correction calculation unit 3 calculates the parameters x, α, and β output from the correction parameter calculation unit 2,
Based on the word space correction limit value Am and the character space correction limit value Bm extracted from the correction upper limit value table 6, the word space correction value A that satisfies the above formula (1) is determined according to the algorithm shown in FIG. and character space correction value B
Calculate.

The contents of the correction upper limit value table 6 are as illustrated in FIG. 4, and include the character type pitch information Pi from the character type display section 4, the ON/OFF information SP from the proportional spacing display section 5, and Based on this, the corresponding Am and Bm are read out.

The correction values A and B output from the space correction value calculation section 3 are supplied to the print control section 7, and print position control is performed based on these values. Print position control is achieved by, for example, controlling the position of the dot pattern on the line buffer if the printer is a dot matrix type printer, or by controlling the drive timing of the print head if the printer is a flying type printer. This is done using known means.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a well-balanced optimal space correction that takes into consideration the pitch between characters and proportional spacing is realized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is an explanatory diagram of word space and character space, Figure 2 is a diagram showing an example of a text subject to automatic line right alignment control, Figure 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the algorithm for determining correction values, and Figure 4 is a diagram of correction. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the upper limit value table, and is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a print data buffer, 2 is a correction parameter calculation section, 3 is a space correction value calculation section, and 6 is a correction upper limit value table.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 When printing one line of data stored in the print buffer, the space between words in the print data is corrected with priority given to the space between characters, and if the correction of the space between words alone is insufficient, the character In a printer equipped with a print control unit that aligns the right edge by correcting the spacing, the first display unit instructs the print pitch based on the print type and the presence or absence of proportional spacing. and a limit value table in which correction limit values for each of word spacing and character spacing are optimally set to correspond to print pitch and proportional spacing, and the first and second displays are A printing control method characterized in that, in response to an instruction output from the printing section, a corresponding correction limit value is determined from the limit value table and outputted to the printing control section, so as to perform alignment printing at the right end.