JPH0544918B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] <Industrial Application Field> The present invention relates to a printing device that prints character rows by arranging characters, symbols, etc. on a printing tape in the longitudinal direction of the printing tape, and particularly relates to a printing tape with character rows. The present invention relates to a tape printing device that can change the printing position in the width direction of the tape.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Tape printing devices typically include a print head and a feed device. The print head has a print element array consisting of a number of printing elements, and the feeding device feeds the print tape in a direction transverse to the print element array relative to the print head. In accordance with the feeding, character arrays are printed using a dot matrix within the length of the printing element array.

<Problems to be Solved by the Invention> However, in conventional tape printing devices, the printing position is determined according to the character size (accurately it should be called character size, but according to convention, it is called character size). Flexibility is not considered, and the printing position of characters whose size is smaller than the length of the printing element row is uniformly determined in advance, leaving the user with no choice, leading to the problem of not being able to support a variety of printing formats. be.

<Means for Solving the Problems> The present invention has been made to solve such problems, and the printing device according to the present invention is a printing device as described above. Characters of the same size are lined up in the longitudinal direction of the printing tape and the range of the printing element row that is driven when printing a character row is shifted in the length direction of the printing element row, and the character row is placed in the center of the printing tape in the width direction. The present invention is characterized in that a printing position changing means is provided for changing between a center printing mode in which printing is performed and a one-sided alignment mode in which printing is performed with character rows shifted to one side in the width direction of the printing tape.

<Operations and Effects> According to the printing device as described above, either center printing or one-sided alignment printing can be performed depending on the user's selection. Therefore, by selecting the printing format that is considered more appropriate between center printing and single-side alignment printing, depending on the font size and purpose of use of the printing tape, the optimal printing tape can be created depending on the case. be able to.

<Embodiment> Hereinafter, one embodiment of the tape printing device according to the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 schematically shows the tape printing device. This printing device includes an input section 10, a printer section 12, and a liquid crystal display 14 (hereinafter simply referred to as a display) having a predetermined number of digits.

In the printer section 12, a thermal head 16 as a printing head is provided in a fixed position and is pressed against a platen roller 18. Between the thermal head 16 and the platen roller 18, a printing tape 20 is supplied from a supply spool 22 via a guide roller 24, and an ink ribbon 28 contained in a ribbon cassette 26 is supplied from a supply spool 30. The printing tape 20 is sent to the left in FIG. 1 by a pair of tape feed rollers 33 driven by a tape/ribbon feed motor 32 (see FIG. 3), and at the same time, the ink ribbon 28 is wound by the motor 32. Take spool 34
It is wound up. A tape cutter 35 is provided downstream of the roller 33 in the tape feeding direction, and the printed tape 20 is cut by a cutter drive motor 36 (see FIG. 3).

As shown in FIG. 2, the thermal head 16 has a heating element array 3, which is a printing element array, on its head body 17.
It has 8. The heating element row 38 is composed of a large number of heating elements 39, and in this embodiment, it has 48 heating elements 39. The heating elements 39 are arranged adjacent to each other in a direction orthogonal to the tape feeding direction, and the heating element array 38 is driven at a predetermined timing in accordance with the tape/ribbon feeding, so that an input signal is input to the input section 10. Printing is performed on the printing tape 20 according to the data. In this embodiment, a tape/ribbon feed motor 32, a tape feed roller 33, etc. constitute a feeding device.

Returning to FIG. 1, the input section 10 has a keyboard 4.
0 is provided, and the keyboard 40 has various function keys such as character keys 42 such as kana and alphabet, a character size key 44, a center print mode key 46, a bottom alignment print mode key 48, a print key 49, and a tape cut key 50. It is equipped with The functions of these keys will be described later.

The input unit 10 also includes a center print mode key 4.
6. Corresponding to the bottom alignment printing mode key 48, a light emitting diode (hereinafter, a light emitting diode will be referred to as an LED) 52 for indicating a center printing mode and an LED 54 for indicating a bottom alignment printing mode are provided, respectively.
When a center print mode key 46 or a bottom alignment print mode key 48 is pressed, they are selectively turned on to display the corresponding mode.

Next, the control system will be explained based on the block diagram shown in FIG.

The input unit 10 is a microcomputer (hereinafter referred to as
It is connected to an input interface 58 of a microcomputer (abbreviated as microcomputer) 56. Input interface 58
The bus line 60 connects the CPU 62, ROM 64,
RAM 66, character generator for printing and display (hereinafter referred to as CG-ROM) 68,
69 and an output interface 70.

The ROM 64 stores a program memory 71 storing programs for controlling the overall operation of the tape printing apparatus, and a dictionary memory 72 used for kana/kanji conversion.

The RAM 66 includes an input buffer 73, a print buffer 74, a shift register 75, and other necessary counters and registers.

The CG-ROM 68 generates a dot pattern for printing based on input character code data, and the CG-ROM 69 generates a dot pattern for display to be displayed on the display 14.

A head drive circuit 76, a motor drive circuit 77, a display drive circuit 78, and a motor drive circuit 79 are connected to the output interface 70.
A thermal head 16, a tape/ribbon feed motor 32, a display 14, and a cutter drive motor 36 are connected to each of them.

A further embodiment of the head drive circuit 76 is schematically shown in FIG. Each heating element 39 has one electrode connected to the +12V power supply terminal 80, and the other electrode connected to the printing driver 82. The input terminal of each printing driver 82 includes an output terminal of an inverter 86 whose input side is connected to the printing strobe input terminal 84 and each output terminal of a data latch circuit 90 whose input side is connected to the latch signal input terminal 88. each connected. Further, each input terminal of the data latch circuit 90 is connected to a shift register 7 whose inputs are connected to a data input terminal 92 and a clock input terminal 94.
5 output terminals are connected to each other.

Therefore, data corresponding to printing is first stored in the shift register 75 in synchronization with a clock signal. Thereafter, when the latch signal is taken into the data latch circuit 90, the data stored in the shift register 75 is output to the corresponding data latch circuit 90 and stored therein. At the same time, the data is applied to each print driver 82.
In this state, the printing strobe input terminal 8
When a logic "0" print pulse signal from 4 is applied to the input terminal of the inverter 86, the inverter 86
A signal of logic "1" is output from the output terminal of the print driver 82, and is applied to the input terminal of each print driver 82. Therefore, when the data of the data latch circuit 90 is logic "1", the output side of the print driver 82 becomes logic "0", and a drive current is applied from the power supply terminal 80 to the corresponding heating element 39. Ru. At this time, the pulse width of the printing pulse signal input to the printing strobe input terminal 84 is set so that the surface temperature of the heating element 39 becomes a temperature suitable for printing.

By the way, in this embodiment, by operating the character size key 44, a full-width pattern, that is, 24×24
A basic pattern consisting of a dot pattern,
48× obtained by enlarging the basic pattern vertically and horizontally
The font size can be set to either a 48-dot quadruple-width pattern or a font size.

In the case of a quadruple-width pattern, the pattern is 1
Each dot row is transferred as is to the shift register 75, for example 48 x 48 as shown on the left side of Figure 5.
Dots will be printed.

On the other hand, in the case of a full-width pattern, by further operating the center print mode key 46 and bottom alignment print mode key 48, a center print mode in which character rows are printed at the widthwise center of the print tape 20, and a A bottom alignment printing mode can be selected in which character rows are printed closer to the lower side in the width direction. In center print mode,
Before and after the basic pattern data is transferred for each dot row, space data for 12 dots, that is, logical "0" data is inserted, and for example, as shown in the fifth center, the center line of the printing tape 20 is inserted. 24 x 24 dots are printed with the center of the character located on the O. On the other hand, in the bottom alignment printing mode, 24 dots worth of space data (logical 0) is inserted before the basic pattern data is transferred for each dot row. As shown in the figure, 24×24 dots are printed with the upper limit being the center line of the tape 20.

An example of such a printing program is shown below.
The explanation will be based on the flowchart shown in the figure.

When the power is turned on, initial settings such as character size and print position are performed in step S1 (hereinafter simply referred to as S1; the same applies to other steps), and the character size is set to full-width pattern, and the print position is set to center print mode. Set. At this time, the character size is displayed on the display 14, and the center print mode display LED 52 is lit. The print data input using the character key 42 is
2, S3, and S17, the characters corresponding to the print data are displayed on the display 14 via the display CG-ROM 69 in S18.

When the bottom alignment print mode key 48 is pressed, S
2. Move to S8 via S3 to set the bottom alignment print mode, and then in S9 to display the bottom alignment print mode.
LED54 lights up.

Then, when the print key 49 is pressed, S2, S3
After that, S10 is executed, and the dot pattern generated in the printing CG-ROM 68 in accordance with the input code data is developed in the printing buffer 74. In this case, the initial full-width pattern will be developed. Next, move to S11,
It is determined whether the font size is a full-width pattern,
If YES is determined, the process moves to S12, where it is determined whether the bottom alignment printing mode is selected. In this case, S12
Since the judgment is also YES, S13 is executed, and one dot string of data to be printed is transferred to the print buffer 74.
The data is printed with 24 dots of space data inserted before being transferred to the shift register 75.
By repeating this printing process for each dot row in accordance with the feeding of the tape/ribbon, bottom-aligned printing of a full-width pattern as shown in FIG. 7 (hereinafter referred to as full-width bottom-aligned printing) is performed, for example.

When the center print mode key 46 is pressed to perform center printing in a full-width pattern, S6 is executed via S2 and S3 to set the center print mode, and in S7 the center print mode display LED 5 is activated.
2 lights up. When the print key 49 is pressed, the full-width pattern is developed in the print buffer 74 in S10 as described above, and based on the YES judgment in S11 and the NO judgment in S12, S14 is executed, and the data to be printed is printed before and after it. By inserting space data of 12 dots each and printing each dot row as described above, for example, center printing of a full-width pattern as shown in FIG. 8 (hereinafter referred to as full-width center printing) can be performed. It will be done. In other words, in the bottom alignment printing mode and the center printing mode, the range of the heating element row 38 that is driven during printing is shifted by 12 dots in the row direction (lengthwise direction).

When the character size key 44 is pressed to change the character size from a full-width pattern to a quadruple-width pattern, the quadruple-width pattern mode is set in S4. Also, S5 is executed and the display 14
A display showing the setting pattern is displayed. The mode display on the display 14 is alternately switched each time the font size key 44 is pressed, and the font size currently displayed is determined by operating another key.

When the print key 49 is pressed, S10 is executed via S2 and S3, and a quadruple-width dot pattern is developed on the print buffer 74 via the printing CG-ROM 68. If the determination in the subsequent S11 is NO, the data is transferred as is to the shift register 75 in S15, and each dot row is printed respectively, so that 48×48 dots are printed over the entire length of the heating element row 38. be exposed.

In addition, processing such as kana/kanji conversion is performed as necessary, but in that case, S1 is passed through S2 and S3.
This will be executed as the other processing in step 9.

In addition, in the case of quadruple-width printing, the entire length of the heating element row is used, so there is no choice between center printing and bottom-aligned printing, but if the character size is a full-width pattern, center printing or bottom-aligned printing is required. Kaha,
They are appropriately selected depending on whether the font sizes are the same or mixed, the user's preferences, etc. For example, the seventh
If the font sizes are all full-width patterns, as shown in Figures 9 and 8, Figure 8 is generally better than Figure 7 in terms of appearance, and When the font sizes are different as shown in FIG. 10, it can be said that the printing format shown in FIG. 10 is generally easier to adapt to than that shown in FIG. 9. In other words,
By selecting center printing or bottom alignment printing according to various cases, a printing form more suitable for the case can be obtained. In this embodiment, the center print mode key 46, the bottom alignment print mode key 48, and the microcomputer 56 mainly including the CPU 62 constitute the print position changing means.

Note that when the tape cut key 50 is pressed, S
Steps 2 and S3 are followed by step S16, in which the cutter drive motor 36 drives the tape cutter 35 to cut the printed tape 20, creating a print tape 20 of a desired length.

In the above embodiment, bottom alignment printing is taken as an example of one side alignment printing, but the invention is not limited to this, and upper alignment printing in which printing is performed on the upper side in the width direction of the printing tape 20 may also be used.

In addition, the number of heating elements can be changed as appropriate,
Further, the printing element array is not limited to a heating element array, and the present invention can be applied to a dot array composed of wire dots.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view schematically showing a tape printing device according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a front view of a thermal head which is a printing head thereof. Third
This figure is a block diagram showing the control system of the tape printing apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the head drive circuit shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a specific example of character size and print position, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a portion of the program stored in the program memory of FIG. 3 that is closely related to the present invention. It's a chat. Figures 7 and 8
9 and 10 are explanatory diagrams showing different printing examples, respectively. 10: Input section, 12: Printer section, 14: Liquid crystal display, 16: Thermal head, 20: Printing tape, 28: Ink ribbon, 32: Tape.
Ribbon feed motor, 33: Tape feed roller, 3
5: tape cutter, 38: heating element row, 39: heating element, 40: keyboard, 42: character key, 44: character size key, 46: center print mode key, 48: bottom alignment print mode key, 49:
Print key, 52: Center print mode display LED,
54: LED for displaying bottom alignment printing mode, 56: Microcomputer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A print head that prints on a print tape using a dot matrix within the length of a print element row consisting of a large number of print elements, and a print head that prints on a print tape in relation to the print head. In a printing device equipped with a feeding device that feeds in a direction intersecting a printing element row, the printing driven when printing the character row by arranging characters smaller in size than the length of the printing element row in the longitudinal direction of the printing tape. There is a center printing mode in which the range of the element row is shifted in the length direction of the printing element row and the character row is printed in the center of the width direction of the printing tape, and a center print mode in which the range of the character row is shifted to one side in the width direction of the printing tape. 1. A printing device capable of changing a printing position, characterized by being provided with a printing position changing means for changing to a one-sided alignment mode in which printing is performed.