JPH0316759A - Bicolor printer control system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure the cost reduction of the subject printer by providing a second buffer which stores a dot pattern for each color through a control circuit for reading character codes and converting a character pattern to dots and reading this dot pattern for bicolor printing. CONSTITUTION:A host device 1 is controlled so that character codes are sent to page buffers 2, 2A for each color, and the character codes are loaded and stored in the page buffers 2, 2A. A character generation control circuit 3 reads character codes from the page buffer 2, then reads a corresponding dot pattern from a character generation section 4 and converts it to a dot pattern. This dot pattern is loaded in a dot page buffer 5. If the dot page buffer 5 is filled with dot patterns, a dot page buffer 5A is filled with dot patterns from the page buffer 2A. Next, the content of each dot page buffer 5, 5A is read by printing sections 6, 6A, then these contents which are read are sent to a printer section 7 as a bit pattern and this bit pattern is printed in two colors on a single page. Consequently, it is possible to perform bicolor printing using a low-cost hardware.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a two-color print control system for a non-impact two-color page printer. [Conventional technology] Conventional non-impact page printers use one color (black)
Printing was standard, and two-color or full-color printing was not possible due to problems with the device (printing mechanism). [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, there has been a persistent desire to color-code paper forms and printed data. Therefore, control methods have been considered such as having two dot pattern generation circuits or using wire logic to increase the speed, but there are problems in terms of cost and reliability, and it is difficult to realize a control device. It had the disadvantage of delaying the [Means for Solving the Problems] According to the present invention, a control circuit includes a first buffer for storing two-color character codes, and a means for reading character codes from the buffer and converting character patterns into dots. A two-color printer control characterized in that it has a second buffer that obtains a continuous dot pattern and stores the dot pattern for each color, and reads the dot pattern from the second buffer during printing to print two colors. A method is obtained. [
Embodiment] Next, the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings showing an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment of the present invention (the colors will be limited to red and black to simplify the explanation) is as follows:
A host device 1, a page buffer A2 that stores one or more pages of character codes for each color sent from the host device 1, that is, one or more pages of black character codes, and a page buffer B2A that also stores one or more pages of red character codes. These two pages are each assigned a page number, and if the pages have the same page number, they are controlled as being printed on the same paper. The character generation control circuit 3 reads the character code from the page buffer A2, reads the character pattern from the character generation section 4, and generates it as a dot pattern. The dot page buffer A5 stores one page of dot patterns created by the character generation control circuit 3.
Similarly, in the case of page buffer B2A, the dot pattern is placed in dot page buffer B5A. Here, dot buffer A5 is black, dot buffer B5A
correspond to each red dot pattern. Dot page buffer A5, dot page buffer B5
Corresponding to A, there are a printing section A6 and a printing section B6A, which independently read out the dot page buffer and send the dot pattern to the printer section 7 for printing. The operation of this embodiment, which is elliptical as described above, will be explained. The host device 1 is controlled to send character codes to the page buffer A2 and page buffer B2A for each color.
The character code sent for each color is stored in page buffer A2. Each is loaded and stored in page buffer B2A. Here, the page buffer A2 and the page buffer B2A do not need to be independent in terms of hardware, and may be composed of a series of memories, but for the sake of simplicity, in this embodiment, they are each independent. It is written. The character code loaded in this way is first read out from the page buffer A2 by the character generation control circuit 3, and then the character generation control circuit 3 reads out the dot pattern in the character generation section 4 corresponding to this character code and uses it. Convert to printable dot pattern and save it to dot page buffer A
Load it into 5. This operation is performed line by line for one page, and ends at the end of one page. Above 1
Once the dot page buffer A5 for a page has been filled with dot patterns, the same process is performed from the page buffer B2A to "fill" the dot pattern for one page into the dot page buffer B5A. When the pattern has finished inputting, the print section A6 and print section B6A read out the contents of the dot page buffer A5 and dot page buffer B5A, respectively, and send them to the printer section 7 as a 1.0 bit pattern, and print the two colors at the same time or at a slightly different time. The dot page buffers A and B do not need to be independent in terms of hardware, but may be composed of a series of memories. [Effects of the Invention] The present invention has the following advantages: , as explained above, has the effect of enabling two-color printing with inexpensive hardware.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the present invention. 1... Upper device, 2... Page buffer A, 2 people.
...Page buffer B, 3...Character generation control circuit, 4
...Character generation part, 5...Dot page buffer A,
5A...Dot page buffer B, 6...Printing section A
, 6A...Printing section B, 7... Printer section.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A dot pattern is obtained through a control circuit equipped with a first buffer for storing character codes of two colors and a means for reading the character code from the buffer and converting the character pattern into dots, and storing the dot pattern for each color. A two-color printer control system characterized by having a second buffer and reading a dot pattern from the second buffer during printing to print two colors.