JPH06199020A - Method and apparatus for controlling label printing - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] The present invention aims to specify a desired position and perform label printing from that position. According to the present invention, when the label printing start position M is designated by the keyboard 4, this is written in the printing buffer 31 via the CPU 1. The CPU 1 executes the program 100 to obtain the label print start position (X ′, Y ′) corresponding to the M from the initial print start position (X, Y) in the print buffer 31, and prints the label print after conversion. Write to the buffer 32 for the keyboard
The print data within the print range designated by is read from the print buffer 31 and written in the converted label print buffer 32. After that, the CPU 1 prints the label from the print start position (X ′, Y ′) specified in the converted label print buffer 32, and then the buffer 3
The print data is read from 2 and sent to the printer 9, and label printing is started from the label at the designated position.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a label printing control method and apparatus for performing label printing on paper.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a label is printed by using a document creating apparatus or the like, there is a limitation that the printing position on the paper at the start of the label printing is limited, and the printing cannot be performed from the label at any position. . For example, when there are a plurality of labels arranged in two rows, data such as an address is printed on the first three labels by the conventional document creating apparatus, and the remaining labels are not used. Even if an attempt is made to use the remaining label above, the conventional apparatus cannot specify the print to the first label among the remaining labels, so that the remaining label cannot be used in the end, resulting in waste. There was a drawback that

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional label printing control method used in the document creating apparatus and the like, the position of the print start label is limited, and the label printing position cannot be arbitrarily designated. For this reason, even if there is a remaining label print on the paper, printing cannot be started from the leading position of the remaining label, so that the remaining label cannot be used and waste occurs. there were.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and provide a label printing control method and apparatus capable of designating an arbitrary position and performing label printing from there.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, in a label printing control apparatus for printing data on a paper by a label, a designating means for designating the position of the label on the paper to start printing, and a label designated by the designating means. And a control means for label-printing the data from the print start position calculated by the calculation means.

[0006]

In the print control apparatus of the present invention, the designating means designates the position of the label on the paper on which printing is started. The calculating means calculates the print start position for label printing the data based on the position of the label designated by the designating means. The control unit prints the label on the data from the print start position calculated by the calculation unit.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a document creating apparatus to which the label printing control method of the present invention is applied. 1
Is a microprocessor (CPU) that performs individual control such as document creation control and label printing control, and control of the entire apparatus, 2 is a ROM that stores programs, dictionaries, and other various data, and 3 is an input document that is stored A RAM for storing document data such as document memory and document format information, a keyboard 4 for inputting characters to the CPU 1 for activating a document and starting an editing process using the keyboard interface 5, and a RAM 6 for storing data Document data and the like are expanded in the display dot memory 8, and the display control device 7 and the CPU
A display device for displaying under the control of 1, a printer interface 10 and a CPU for displaying data stored in the RAM 3 and the like.
A printer that prints a label under the control of 1, a RAM 11
An external storage device (such as a floppy disk) that stores the document data and the like stored in 3 under the control of the disk interface 12 and the CPU 1, and 12 is a disk interface that controls the reading and writing of data with respect to the external storage device 11.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. To print a label, the operator presses a label print designation key on the keyboard 4. As a result, the CPU 1 accepts the label print designation key input through the keyboard interface 5, then reads, for example, the address label print designation screen data from the ROM 3, and the display dot memory 8 is displayed through the display control device 7. 2 is displayed on the screen of the display device 6 by expanding the screen of FIG. The operator looks at this screen and designates the label print start position (same as the label start number M), the recipient print range, etc. from the keyboard 4. As a result, in step 301 of FIG. 3, the CPU 1 receives the designated label start number M via the keyboard interface 5, and then proceeds to step 302. In step 302, the CPU 1 reads the initial start coordinates (X, Y) of the label paper stored in the print buffer provided in the RAM 3, and then first, the print start Y coordinate of the label start number M. Is calculated according to the following formula. That is, the calculation of Y ′ = (V + k) × (M−1) ÷ C ... (1) is performed. Here, V is the label vertical width of the label paper shown in FIG. 4, which is stored in the print buffer in the RAM 3 as shown in FIG.
It is stored as an example of label print structure data as shown in FIG. In this example of label printing structure data, C indicates the number of horizontal sides of the label. Further, k in the above formula (1) represents the length in the vertical direction between the labels and is a constant value. However, in the above formula (1), the value of (M-1) / C is rounded down,
Use only integers.

Next, the CPU 1 proceeds to step 303,
After setting the remainder of (M-1) ÷ C in Z, the process proceeds to step 304. In step 304, CPU1 is RAM
Initial label coordinates (X, X indicating the position of the label at the beginning of the label paper stored in the print buffer in 3).
From Y), the X coordinate of the designated Mth label is calculated according to the following equation. That is, X ′ = X + (H + j) × Z ...
(2) In the equation (2), H represents the width of the label according to the label paper example of FIG. 4 and the label printing structure data example of FIG. 5, and j is the horizontal length between labels (fixed value). ) Is shown. As a result, the position coordinates of the Mth label from the beginning where label printing is started can be known. Next, the CPU 1 reads out the address data corresponding to the recipient print range (all or part) designated on the address print designation screen of FIG. 2 from the address data in the RAM 3, and prints this out via the printer interface 10 to the printer. Then, the label printing is started from the M-th label (X ′, Y ′) of the label paper. In addition to the whole or part of the above-mentioned printing range, it is also possible to specify the data to be printed on each label one by one.

Here, FIG. 6 shows the case where the label printing start position on the label sheet is 1, and is an example in which addresses and the like are printed on the labels from the first label to the third label in order. In this example, after printing three sheets, the other labels are left blank. FIG. 7 is an example in which label printing is performed on the remaining labels in FIG. In this case, if 4 is specified as the label printing start position, the above (1),
It is the position of the fourth label based on the equation (2) (X
′, Y ′) coordinates are calculated, and data such as an address is printed by the printer 9 on the remaining labels based on the (X ′, Y ′) coordinates and output. In this example, the label coordinates of the label start position are X = H + j and Y = V + k.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the flow of control at the time of label printing described above. First, when the label start position M and the print range designation data are input to the CPU 1 from the keyboard 4, the CPU 1 causes the label start position M in the print buffer 31.
Write. However, the initial label printing start position coordinates (X, Y) of the label printing and the data such as the recipient are saved in advance in the printing buffer 31. CPU
Reference numeral 1 executes the program 100 to calculate position coordinates (X ′, Y ′) indicating the position of the label to be actually printed from the label printing start position M, and convert this to the label printing buffer after conversion. In addition to writing to 32, the print data input from the keyboard 4 within the print range is written from the print buffer 31 to the label print buffer 32 after conversion in the print order. After that, the CPU 1 executes the program 100
Is further executed, and from the print start position (X ′, Y ′) shown in the converted label printing buffer 32 to the same buffer 32.
In order to print the print data written in the label paper, these data are sent to the printer 9.

According to this embodiment, when label printing is performed, when an arbitrary label position in the label paper is designated, the apparatus automatically calculates the print start position corresponding to the designated label, Data can be label-printed in order from the designated label. Therefore, since the label printing can be performed using the remaining label paper which has already been label-printed, the label paper can be effectively used. Further, since the data to be printed can be freely specified separately from an arbitrary label position, the degree of freedom in label printing can be expanded and the operability of the apparatus can be significantly improved.

[0013]

As described above, according to the label printing control method and apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to specify an arbitrary position and perform label printing from there.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a label printing control device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an address label print designation screen displayed on the display device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of label print start coordinate calculation processing of the CPU shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of label paper.

5 is a diagram showing an example of label print structure data stored in the RAM of FIG. 1. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example in which data is label-printed on a label sheet.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example in which data is label-printed on the remaining label paper.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a control flow at the time of label printing of the apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CPU 2 ... ROM 3 ... RAM 4 ... Keyboard 5 ... Keyboard interface 6 ... Display device 7 ... Display control device 8 ... Display dot memory 9 ... Printer 10 ... Printer interface 11 ... External storage device 12 ... Disk interface 31 ... Printing Buffer 32 ... Label printing buffer after conversion

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A label printing control method for label printing data on a sheet, when a position of an arbitrary label on the sheet is designated, a printing start for label printing the data from the label at the designated position. A label printing control method, wherein a position is obtained and data is printed from the printing start position. 2. A label printing control device for printing data on a paper by a label printing device, which designates the position of the label on the paper on which printing is started, and the data based on the label position designated by the designating device. A label printing control apparatus comprising: a calculation unit that calculates a print start position for printing a label; and a control unit that prints a label from the print start position calculated by the calculation unit.