JPH06210902A - Recorder - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] Even if the recording information is divided into upper and lower parts due to scanning by a limited array of recording elements and recording is performed, the recording quality due to discontinuity in the divided part (EN) Provided is a recording device in which the deterioration of A storage unit (a storage area 31 of the RAM 3) for storing the positions of recording dots to be recorded during scanning by the arranged recording elements based on the recording information, and the recording elements and / or the scanning directions. Recording density calculating means (CPU1) for calculating a distribution of recording density by the recording dots based on the number of recording dots, and means for setting an area in the array direction of the recording elements to perform dot recording based on the density distribution. ) And a recording device comprising.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a recording device, and more particularly to a recording device having a storage means for storing image information to be recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when such recording image information is received from a host device for recording, the recording device buffers the image information transferred from the host device in accordance with the transfer order of the image information transferred from the host device. I'm trying to remember it. Particularly, in recent years, in order to obtain the same output result in both the display device on the host device side and the recording device connected to the host device, the recording image information is generated on the host device side, and the recording device information is generated from the host device side. A system for transferring recorded information to a side has become common. Further, as the information structure for transferring the recording information by the above-mentioned procedure, a method of transferring by the same raster image data structure as the CRT display device has been frequently used. Particularly in a recording apparatus having a page memory, in the case of the above method, the recording image information stored in the storage unit on the recording apparatus side is zoned from the upper end of the recording range of the recording sheet to the dot row width of the recording head, and is zoned. The recording is done according to the order. At this time, if there is no print data of the information transferred from the host device in the zone, printing is not performed and only sheet feeding is performed. In the case of a recording device having no page memory, recording is started when the recording buffer capacity of the recording device is filled with recording data.

[0003]

However, when recording is performed by such a conventional method, the recording image information is zoned and recorded regardless of the content of the recording data. Therefore, especially in the case of a serial printer, the print image quality of the zone, which is divided into zones according to the dot row width, and the connecting portion between the zones is especially noticed. The front edge of the zone is not recorded at the correct position,
Therefore, there is a possibility that the distance between the two zones may be too far away, or on the contrary, they may approach each other or overlap each other, which may have a bad influence on the recording quality. That is, when recording is performed as in the above-described conventional case, zone division is performed without considering the recorded content, and as a result, there may be a case in which the recording quality is inconvenient. For example, as shown in FIG.
When recording is performed on the recording sheet 202 by the recording head having a recording width of 201 for one scanning, the recording content 204 may be recorded separately in the zone 205 and the zone 206. In such a case, the recording content 204 However, there was a risk that the recording quality would be impaired between the zones due to the interruption in the vertical direction.

The object of the present invention is to pay attention to the above-mentioned conventional problems, and in order to solve the problems, even if the recording information is divided into upper and lower parts due to scanning by the limited arrangement of the recording elements, It is an object of the present invention to provide a recording apparatus that is controlled so that the recording quality in the divided portion is not impaired due to the discontinuity and the high recording quality is always maintained over the entire recorded image.

[0005]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has an array of recording elements capable of dot recording, and is fed by a recording head which is scanned in a direction substantially perpendicular to the array. In a recording apparatus in which recording is performed based on the recorded information and the sheet is fed in a direction perpendicular to the scanning, recording is performed by each of the recording elements during the scanning based on the recording information fed before the scanning. Storage means for storing the positions of the recording dots, and in the recording element array direction and / or scanning direction during one scan based on the number of recording dots for each recording element and / or scanning direction stored in the storage means Recording density calculating means for calculating a density distribution of recording dots, and an arraying method for performing the dot recording of the recording element based on the density distribution calculated by the recording density calculating means It is characterized in that it has and a recording element driving area setting means for setting a region.

[0006]

According to the present invention, the density distribution of the recording dots in the recording element array direction and / or the scanning direction is calculated by the recording density calculating means from the recording dot position during one scanning stored in the storage means based on the recording information. Based on the obtained density distribution, the recording element drive area setting means sets the recording element drive area where the dot recording is to be performed during the scan to be performed from now on, for example, to the area determined to have a high density. When the high-density area is divided into two, by controlling one of the high-density areas to be recorded at the time of the next scanning, the character information or the like is divided and scan-recorded. Can be prevented as much as possible. Also,
Dot recording is performed corresponding to the density distribution of the recording dots obtained from the recording density calculation means even when the high-density area during one scan exists across the array direction of the recording elements and the scanning direction. It is possible to set the printing element drive area appropriately.

[0007]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail and specifically below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a circuit configuration of the present invention. here,
Reference numeral 1 is a central processing unit (CPU) that controls the recording operation of the recording apparatus, 2 is a ROM that stores control programs, and 3 is a host apparatus 5 via a data receiving unit 4.
A RAM for temporarily storing information such as a recording image sent from the printer side, 6 is an operation panel unit having input keys, and 7 is a bus related to data input / output and memory and control. Further, 8 is a timer, 9 is a carriage motor drive unit that drives a carriage motor to move and scan a carriage equipped with a head at a predetermined timing, 10 is a sheet feed motor drive unit, and 11 is a print head according to a print signal. A head drive unit that drives and performs recording, 12 is a home position sensor, and 13 is a sheet width detection sensor.

First, a basic control operation relating to recording in the recording apparatus of the present invention having the above-described circuit configuration will be described.

In the CPU 1, when a recording start signal is input from the host device 5 side through the operation panel 6, whether or not the recording head is at the home position is confirmed by a detection signal from the home position sensor 12, The carriage motor driving unit 9 moves the recording head together with the carriage. When the print head reaches a predetermined print area, print data is read from the RAM 3 and the head drive unit 11 is operated according to the read data.
One scan (one line) on the recording sheet 202 (see FIG. 7)
Is performed, the sheet feeding motor is driven by the driving unit 10 every time the recording for one line is completed, the sheet is fed, and the above operation is repeated again.

By the way, in the present invention, when recording information is read out from the RAM 3 and recording is performed, the CPU 1 stores the recording information in the RAM 3 in the buffer (hereinafter referred to as an information storage buffer) as described below. The recording density can be investigated, and an example thereof will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, 31 indicates a print information storage area in the information storage buffer, and L indicates a width corresponding to the print sheet width in the area 31. In the information storage area 31, each row 32 defined by a horizontal line indicates an area to be recorded by one recording element of the recording head, that is, one dot recording element. It can be seen that there is no data to be recorded in the upper area 32. Reference numeral 33 schematically shows the record information stored in the information storage area 31.

Further, what is shown in the form of the table on the right side of FIG. 2 is that the line number NO of each line 32 (hereinafter referred to as a dot line for the sake of clarity) and the record for each line. The number of dots PD to be printed, the total number of printable dots TD for each row, and the ratio of PD / TD. In this way, the ratio of the number of dots PD to be recorded to the number of dots TD that can be recorded, that is, the recording density is different for each dot row. Therefore, such calculation is performed by the CPU 1 according to software or by using a counter separately provided as hardware. With the recording density table thus obtained, the recording density of the entire recording information can be grasped each time via the buffer.

Next, with reference to FIG. 3, an example of recording control executed by using the recording density information obtained as described above will be described.

The recording density information is shown in the right half of FIG. 3, and the recording width PB recorded in one scan is shown in the left half.
(201) is described. That is, in the right half, 41 indicates the recording density curve, and the direction D shown by the arrow indicates the height of the recording density. Furthermore, the arrow S indicates the sheet feeding direction. Therefore, as shown in the right half of FIG. 3, when 42 is set as a threshold value and the density exceeding this threshold value is defined as a high recording density, the area indicated by 43 is a high density area. The area widths in the high recording density area 43 at this time are indicated by m1 and m2, respectively.

Now, in the recording apparatus, the recording start position 44
If the recording width of the recording head is 201 (not shown) on the assumption that recording is started by scanning the recording head from
A recording area for one scan when the recording start position 44 is aligned with the upper end of the head is an area indicated by 45. That is, the area 45 includes the entire high-density area having the width m1 and a part of the high-density area having the width m2, and the area indicated by the width m2 expected to be the character area is recorded. It will be divided into two zones. Therefore, in order to record an area of width m2 expected to be a character without dividing the area into two, the first recording area is the area indicated by P1 and the area above the area of width m2 (PB-P1). Is recorded during (1 + 1) scanning. Thus, although the maximum capacity of the print head is not used as the print amount for one scan, the print quality can be improved as a result, and the print area for the (1 + 1) scan has a width P (1 + 1). As shown, the recording may be started from the position 46.

FIG. 4 shows an example of processing when recording the recording information having the high density area 43 as indicated by m3 which is wider than the recording width 201 of the recording head. In this example, unlike the processing shown in FIG. 3, printing of the full printing width 201 is required, and in this case, the high density portion such as characters must be printed by scanning twice. For that purpose, there is no choice but to increase the accuracy of the sheet feeding performed between the recording during the first scanning and the recording during the (1 + 1) th scanning. In order to obtain the high sheet feeding accuracy, for example, the sheet feeding speed is slowed. To prevent the recording sheet from slipping during sheet feeding.

In the embodiment described above, the recording density in the row direction, that is, the scanning direction is examined, and the recording area is set at each scanning based on the recording density. The same applies to the density in the direction.

FIG. 5 shows an example of recorded contents in which such a recording density in the column direction causes a problem. That is, in this example, the horizontal ruled line 2 is included in the recorded content 204 as shown in (A).
07 and a vertical ruled line 208 are included. Therefore, with respect to such print contents 204, the print density obtained over the entire width obtained by two scans indicated by P1 and P (1 + 1) by the print head having the print width 201 is shown in FIG. As shown in (B). In FIG. 5B, 41MAX is the maximum recording density area (solid recording area) that appears at the position of the vertical ruled line 208 shown in (A) with respect to the scanning direction S of the recording head. Therefore, in order to obtain the accurate upper and lower connections in the solid recording area 41MAX, the sheet feeding speed is controlled in the same manner as described above so that the sheet feeding accuracy is improved.

In the above-described embodiments, the recording density of the recording information is calculated once for each scan, but the delimiter for calculating the recording density is one line, that is, once. There may be a plurality of items in the scanning amount information.
That is, it is possible to selectively divide the area into a continuous area and a non-continuous area in the sheet feeding direction S for one scan of the recording head. FIG. 6 shows an example of control divided into blocks. In FIG. 6, the positions of the character information indicated by 33A and the character information indicated by 33B are the sheet feeding direction S.
Is the same for. Therefore, if the print width of the print head is 201, the character information 33A and 33B are the same first block because they are printable areas in one scan. When the character information 33C is recorded at the same time as the first block, the character information is divided in the middle of the recording, so that this is distinguished from the first block and is referred to as a second block. In this way, it is possible to improve the recording quality by dividing the print information into a plurality of blocks in one scan and determining the print density for each block and then controlling the print.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the memory for storing the position of the recording dot to be recorded by each recording element during the scanning based on the recording information sent before the scanning. Means and the density distribution of the recording dots in the recording element arrangement direction and / or the scanning direction during one scanning based on the number of the recording dots for each recording element and / or each scanning direction stored in the storage means. Since the recording density calculation means and the recording element drive area setting means for setting the area in the array direction in which the dot recording of the recording elements is performed based on the density distribution calculated by the recording density calculation means, It can contribute to the improvement of quality.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a circuit according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing the contents of a recording information storage memory buffer according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of control according to the present invention together with its recording density distribution chart.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment according to the present invention together with its recording density distribution chart.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing still another embodiment according to the present invention by its recorded contents (A) and a recording density distribution diagram (B) based on the recorded contents.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing still another area division example of recorded information according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between print contents and a print area by one scan.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 2 ROM 3 RAM 4 Data Receiving Section 5 Host Device 9 Carriage Motor Driving Section 10 Sheet Feed Motor Driving Section 11 Head Driving Section 12 Home Position Sensor 13 Sheet Width Detection Sensor 31 Recording Information Storage Area 32 Dot Line 33 Recording Information 33A, 33B, 33C Character information PD / TD Recording density 41 Recording density curve 42 Threshold 43, m1, m2 High density area

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An array of recording elements capable of dot recording, wherein recording is performed based on recording information sent by a recording head that is scanned in a direction substantially perpendicular to the array, and is orthogonal to the scanning. In a recording apparatus that feeds a sheet in a direction, a storage unit that stores the position of a recording dot to be recorded by each recording element during the scanning based on the recording information that is fed before the scanning, and the storage unit that stores the position. A recording density calculating means for calculating a density distribution of the recording dots in the recording element array direction and / or the scanning direction during one scan based on the number of the recorded recording dots for each recording element and / or the scanning direction, Print element drive area setting means for setting an area in the array direction in which the dot recording of the print elements is performed based on the density distribution calculated by the density calculation means. A recording device characterized by the above.