JPH024559A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select only stored font information, to print it, and to reduce waste of a sheet when font set memory means is not attached by printing and outputting the information of the font set memory means when the memory means is attached to a printer. CONSTITUTION:Whether a font cartridge 3 (font set memory means) is attached to a connector 24 or not is judged, and when the cartridge 3 is not attached, information regarding stored font is printed by a dot printer 23. On the other hand, when the fact that the cartridge 3 is attached is judged, the information on the font of the cartridge 3 is printed by a dot printer 23. That is, thus, the printing of unnecessary font information can be eliminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a printing device that outputs font information of a print pattern by printing.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, there has been known a printing device that reads out a printing pattern corresponding to a code sent from a host computer etc. from font information and prints it. , all of the font information built into the printing device is printed and output by the printing device, while several sets of font information of various different fonts, pitches, and sizes are stored and can be attached to and removed from the printing device. When a font cartridge, etc., which is used for Ta.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, as described above, conventionally, all of the font information built in the printing device and the font information built in the font cartridge that is detachably attached to the printing device are Since I was trying to output all of the font information by printing, there is a problem that if there is a large number of font information, the number of print media, that is, paper used for printing increases, and I also want to print only a part of the font information. In some cases, there was a problem that extra time was required.

Therefore, the printing device of the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to: When the font set storage means is installed in the printing device, the printing device of the present invention While printing and outputting information, if the font set storage means is not installed, only the font information built in the printing device is selected and printed, reducing the waste of printing media, that is, paper, and The purpose is to save time.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the objectives, the printing device of the present invention has the following configuration. In a printing device that outputs by printing, the printing device is provided with a connector means for detachably attaching a font set storage means containing a plurality of sets of font information, and the font set storage means is loaded in the connector means. In this case, the font information of the character set storage means is output by printing, while when the font set storage means is not attached to the connector means, only the font information built in the printing device is printed. The printer is equipped with a print control means for controlling the printing process.

[Function] When the connector means provided in the printing device is loaded with a font set storage means that stores a plurality of sets of font information, the font information of the character set storage means is output by printing, while the font information stored in the character set storage means is outputted by printing. If the font set storage means is not installed, the print control means operates to print only the font information built into the printing device.

[Examples] Examples will be described below with reference to drawings and flowcharts.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment.

In FIG. 1, a host computer 1 that outputs print data and various print commands is connected to a control unit 21 in a printer main body 2, while a font cartridge 3 that stores different character pattern sets is connected to a control unit 21. It is made detachable via a connector 24 connected to.

The printing device main body 2 is composed of a microprocessor including RAM and ROM (not shown), and includes a control unit 21 that controls printing of the printing device, and a built-in character block that converts a print data code input from the host computer 1 into pattern data corresponding to the print data code. A dot printer section 23 is provided for forming the converted pattern data on a sheet of paper as a permanent visible image.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a table in which addresses of fonts built into the printer main body 2 are stored.
Further, FIG. 3 shows a table in which addresses of fonts contained within the font cartridge 3 are stored.

In both FIGS. 2 and 3, the display of IrNULLJl indicates that there is no font address, and therefore the value of the address is set to zero.

Next, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the process from printing to outputting information regarding fonts. In FIG. 4, in step S1, it is determined whether the font cartridge 3 is attached to the connector section 24 or not. The detection of this wearing state is carried out, for example, by the control unit 21 as described above.
This can be easily determined by determining whether any pair of connection bins of the connector 24 connected to the font cartridge 3 are short-circuited due to the loading of the font cartridge 3. If the font cartridge 3 is not installed, the process advances to step S2 and the pointer is moved to the first address of the built-in font address table shown in FIG. Next, the process proceeds to step S3, and if the content pointed to by the pointer is a built-in font, the process proceeds to step S4, in which information regarding the built-in font is printed by the dot printer section 23.

On the other hand, if the content pointed to by the pointer is not a built-in font in step S3, the process advances to step S6, and if the content pointed to by the pointer is not ImNULL or 11, step S5
If it is FNULL, n, then all the information about the built-in fonts on the table has been printed, so
Proceeding to step S7, the print content regarding the built-in font information is printed by the printing device and the paper is ejected.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step Sl that the font cartridge 3 is installed, the process advances to step S8;
Move the pointer to the beginning of the font address table in font cartridge 3. Next, the process advances to step S9, and if the content pointed to by the pointer is the font of the font cartridge, the process advances to step SIO, where information regarding the font of the font cartridge is printed by the dot printer section 23, and in step Sll, the pointer is set to 1.
The process advances by one step and returns to step S9.

Next, in step S9, if the content pointed to by the pointer is not the font of the font cartridge 3, step S6
If the content pointed to by the pointer is not IrNULLJl, the process advances to step S7 and the font cartridge 3
The paper is ejected after the print content regarding the font information is printed.

As explained above, when the font cartridge 3 is installed in the printing device, the font cartridge 3
It is possible to print only the font information and discharge the paper after the printed content regarding the font information is printed.

FIG. 5 shows an example of outputting font information when a font cartridge is not installed, and FIG. 6 shows an example of outputting font information when a font cartridge is installed.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, an example of a font cartridge, which is a character set storage means that can be detachably attached to a printing device via a connector, has been described, but ICROM cards, optical disk ROMs, etc. having similar functions can also be used. The printing apparatus of the present invention is also applicable to character set storage means.

As explained above, printing of unnecessary font information can be eliminated by selecting the character font information built into the printing device and the character font information stored in the external character set storage means, controlling the printing, and printing. can.

[Effects of the Invention] Since the printing device of the present invention is configured as described above, by printing font information, it is possible to reduce waste of printing media, that is, paper when outputting, and to print only part of the font information. In some cases, the time is reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a printing device 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a table diagram in which addresses of built-in fonts are stored, and FIG. 3 is an address of fonts built into a font cartridge 3. Fig. 4 is a flowchart showing the process up to printing out font information, Fig. 5 is an example of outputting font information when font cartridge 3 is not installed, Fig. 6 is an example of outputting font information when font cartridge 3 is installed. This shows an example of outputting font information when the font is installed. In the figure, 1... host computer, 2... printer main body, 3... font cartridge, 21... control section, 22... built-in character set, 23... dot printer section, 24...・This is the connector part.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a printing device that outputs font information that determines the pitch, size, font, etc. of a printing pattern by printing, the printing device is provided with connector means for detachably attaching a font set storage means containing a plurality of sets of font information. In addition, when the font set storage means is loaded in the connector means, the font information of the character set storage means is outputted by printing, while when the font set storage means is not installed in the connector means. for,
A printing device comprising: a printing control means for printing font information built into the printing device.