JPH0596811A - Printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively use printing paper by a method wherein the printable area on a page of printing paper is divided into two or more columns, print data for a page are received and allocated to the two or more columns, and after lines for the first column are printed, lines for the next column are printed in turn. CONSTITUTION:The printable area on a page is divided into two or more columns X and Y, and after print data for the page is received and lines in the first column X are printed in turn, lines in the next column Y are printed in turn, thus the print data for the page is divided into the two or more columns X and Y and printed. That is, the printable area on the page is divided into the two or more columns X and Y, and printing is carried out for each column, so that vacant spaces that appear in the case of conventional methods can be effectively utilized and printing paper can be saved. Especially, when the number of characters in each line is small because of line feed, etc., and a lot of vacant spaces appear in the case of conventional printing methods, this printing method is effective and the content extending over two or more pages can be accommodated in a page.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a serial printer, for example, as shown in FIG. 6, a print head H having print pins on a print paper P is scanned in the row (arrow) direction to output a data output device such as a host computer. The print data sent from is printed as is. That is, when the number of characters printed on one line reaches a preset value or a line feed code is sent, a line feed is performed and printing is performed sequentially from the upper line to the lower line.

[0003]

In the above conventional printing method, as shown in FIG. 7, when the number of characters in one line is small, the margin is large and the number of printed sheets is large.

An object of the present invention is to provide a printing method capable of effectively utilizing printing paper.

[0005]

According to the present invention, the printable area in one page is divided into a plurality of columns, print data for one page is received, each line in the first column is sequentially printed, and then the next column is printed. The above problem is solved by sequentially printing each line so that print data for one page is divided into a plurality of columns and printed. Also, divide the printable area on one page into multiple columns,
After receiving the print data for one page and printing the desired upper row of each column, the operation of printing the next row of each column is repeated to print the print data for one page divided into multiple columns. By doing so, the above problems are solved.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the method of the present invention is applied to a printer will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, the outline of the printing method according to the present invention will be described. According to the present invention, the conventional print result shown in FIG. 6 is printed in the format shown in FIG. That is, the first line of FIG. 6 is divided into L11 and L12, and L11 is printed on the first line and L12 is printed on the second line of the left column x in FIG. Similarly, the second line in FIG. 6 is divided into L21 and L22, and L21 is printed on the third line of the left column x and L22 is printed on the fourth line. Printing is performed in the same way for the third and subsequent lines.
m2 is printed on the last line of the left column x. Then, from the next line, each line is divided into two and printed in the right column y in FIG. 1, and Ln2 in FIG. 6 is printed in the last line in the right column y in FIG.
By printing in this way, the print contents over two pages as shown in FIG. 7 can be contained in one page as shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows the construction of a printer using the method of the present invention. In FIG. 2, 1 is an input means for reading print data from a data output device such as a personal computer, and 2 is the printing for one page. An input buffer 3 for temporarily storing data, a font storage means 3 for storing font pattern data, and a control 4 for reading out print data from the input buffer 2 and reading out font pattern data from the font storage means 3. Is a deployment control means for
Pointer P1 for indicating the read address of the print data for the left column x, pointer P2 for indicating the read address of the print data for the right column y, counter L for counting the line numbers printed by the print data, printing by the print data It has a counter C for counting the digit numbers to be displayed. 5
Is an expansion buffer for expanding font pattern data, 6
Is a print control means for controlling the printing operation based on the font pattern data in the expansion buffer 5, 7 is a print head H,
It is a printing unit including a carrier motor 7b and a paper feed motor 7c.

Next, a description will be given of the operation in the case where the rows of the same order in the left column x and the right column y are printed by one scan of the print head H.

First, the print data from the data output device is stored in the input buffer 2 via the input means 1. When the print command is received, the expansion control means 4 causes the pointer P
The initial address of 2 is detected. The initial address of the pointer P2 is the start address of the print data for the right column y. This initial address detecting operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In this example, each of the left column x and the right column y is printed with 80 columns and 40 lines, and a space of 3 digits is provided between each column.

First, the pointers P1 and P2 are set to the head address of the input buffer 2 and the counters L and C are set to "1" (step A).

Next, the data at the address designated by the pointer P2 is read out and the value of the pointer P2 is incremented. Then, it is determined whether the print data is a line feed code. If the data is not a line feed code but data for printing a character, the print position of the print data is detected, and the value of the counter C is incremented according to the print position. For example, the value of the counter C is incremented by 1 for standard characters, and the value of the counter C is incremented by 2 for horizontal double characters. If the data is a control code that does not print characters, the value of the counter C is not incremented (step B). In this way, the counter C counts the number of digits of the printed character based on the print data.

Next, it is determined whether or not the value of the counter C is larger than "80". That is, it is determined whether the reading of the print data for one line is completed (step C). If it is determined that the value of the counter C is not larger than "80", the print data at the address indicated by the pointer P2 is read out and the same operation as above is repeated.

If it is determined in step C that the value of the counter C is larger than "80" or if the read print data is a line feed code, a line feed is performed, so the value of the counter C is reset to "1". At the same time, the value of the counter L is incremented by 1 (step D).

Next, it is judged whether or not the value of the counter L is larger than "40". That is, it is judged whether or not the reading of the print data for 40 lines is completed (step E). If it is determined that the value of the counter L is not larger than "40", the print data at the address indicated by the pointer P2 is read out and the same operation as above is repeated.

When it is determined in step E that the value of the counter L is larger than "40", it means that the reading of the print data for 80 columns and 40 lines, that is, the print data for the left column x has been completed from the print data of the head address. , The operation of detecting the initial address of the pointer P2 ends. That is, the address designated by the pointer P2 at this time is the start address of the print data in the right column y.

When the detection of the initial address of the pointer P2 is completed as described above, printing is then performed based on the print data of the input buffer 2. This printing operation is shown in FIG.
A description will be given according to the flowchart in FIG.

First, the values of the counters C and L are set to "1" (step F).

Next, the pointer P1 is input from the input buffer 2.
After reading the print data of the address designated by, the value of the pointer P1 is incremented. Subsequently, the font pattern data corresponding to the print data is read from the font storage means 3 and expanded in the expansion buffer 5, and the value of the counter C is incremented according to the print position of the print data such as the size of the print character. (Step G).

Next, it is judged whether or not the value of the counter C is larger than "80" (step H). here,
If it is determined that the value is not larger than "80", the process returns to step G and the same operation as above is repeated.

When it is determined in step H that the value of the counter C is larger than "80", the value of the counter C is set to "84".
(Step I). That is, when the value of the counter C is larger than "80", it means that the font pattern data for one line in the left column x has been completely expanded in the expansion buffer 5, and then the right column y has the same rank. Since the font pattern data of the line is developed, the leading digit number "84" of the right column y is set in the counter C.

Next, the pointer P2 is input from the input buffer 2.
The value of the pointer P2 is incremented by 1 after the print data of the address designated by is read. Subsequently, similarly to the above, the font pattern data corresponding to the print data is expanded in the expansion buffer 5 and the value of the counter C is incremented (step J).

Next, it is determined whether the value of the counter C is larger than "163" (step K). If it is determined that the value is not larger than "163", step J is repeated.

At step K, the value of the counter C is "163".
If it is determined that it is larger, it means that the font pattern data for one line in the right column y has been expanded in the expansion buffer 5, and the font pattern for one line in each of the left column x and the right column y is thus completed. Since the data has been expanded in the expansion buffer 5, one line of each column is subsequently printed by the printing unit 7 under the control of the printing control unit 6. When the printing is completed, the printing means 7 performs a line feed operation to increment the value of the counter L and reset the value of the counter C to "1" (step L).

Next, it is judged whether or not the value of the counter L becomes larger than "40" (step M). If it is determined that the value of the counter L is not larger than "40", it means that the printing of 40 lines, that is, the printing of one page has not been completed yet. Therefore, the process returns to step G and the printing operation of the next line is performed. .. On the other hand, in step M, the value of the counter L is "4".
If it is determined to be larger than 0 ", 40 lines, that is, 1
Since the printing of the pages has been completed, the process returns to step A and the printing operation of the next page is performed.

By the above operation, the printing of each column shown in FIG. 1 is performed in parallel.

Next, the operation in the case where all the lines in the left column x are first printed and then the right column y is printed is shown in FIG.
A description will be given according to the flowchart in FIG.

In this case, the expansion control means 4 has only the pointer P and also has a flag for identifying the currently printed column.

First, the pointer P is set to the head address of the input buffer 2 and the flag is set to "0". Further, the positions of the print paper and the print head H are set for printing in the left column x. Further, the values of the counters C and L are set to "1" (step A ').

Next, the print data at the address designated by the pointer P is read from the input buffer 2, and the pointer P is read.
Value is incremented and the font pattern data is read from the font storage means 3 according to the print data and expanded in the expansion buffer 5 (step B).
´).

Next, it is determined whether the read print data is a line feed code. If it is not a line feed code, the value of the counter C is incremented, and it is determined whether the value becomes larger than "80" (step C '). If the print data is not a line feed code, the operation of step C'is not performed.

Next, when the print data is a line feed code and when the value of the counter C is larger than "80", that is, when the development of the print data for one line is completed, it is based on the print data. To print and line feed. Further, the value of the counter L is incremented and the value of the counter C is set to "1" to determine whether or not the value of the counter L is larger than "40".
It is judged whether or not the printing of the line is completed (step D
´). If the value of the counter L is not larger than "40", the process returns to step B'and the above operation is repeated.

On the other hand, when the value of the counter L is larger than "40", that is, when printing of 40 lines is completed, it is then determined whether the flag is "0" (step E).
´). The state of this flag detects which column has been printed.

The flag is now set to "0".
In this case, the flag is set to "1" and the value of the counter L is set to "1", and then the positions of the print paper and the print head H for printing the right column y are set (step F ').

On the other hand, if the flag is "1" in step E ', it means that the printing of the right column y has been completed, and the printing operation for one page is completed.

By the above operation, first, all lines in the left column x are printed, and then the right column y is printed.

In the above embodiment, the printable area on one page is divided into two columns.
It may be divided into three or more columns.

[0038]

According to the present invention, the printable area in one page is divided into a plurality of columns, and printing is performed in each column, so that the conventional blank area can be effectively used and the printing paper can be saved. can do. In particular, in the conventional printing method, the present invention is effective when the number of characters in each line is small and the margin is large due to a line feed or the like, and the contents over a plurality of pages can be contained in one page.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing example according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a printer using the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining one operation example of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining one operation example of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining another operation example of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional printing example.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional printing example.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a printing example according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 x, y columns

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A printable area on one page is divided into a plurality of columns, print data for one page is received, each line of the first column is sequentially printed, and then each line of the next column is sequentially printed. A printing method characterized in that print data for one page is divided into a plurality of columns and printed. 2. An operation of dividing a printable area on one page into a plurality of columns, receiving print data for one page, printing a desired upper row of each column, and then printing a next row of each column. By repeating the above, the print data for one page is divided into a plurality of columns and printed.