JPH06320824A - Drawing character control device of printer - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Purpose] To reduce the burden on the firmware, speed up the process of expanding character data, and improve the performance of the device. [Structure] The X-direction and Y-direction sizes of the expanded character stored in the second register are added to the start address of the character expanded in the print data expansion memory stored in the first register. And a character area calculation means for calculating an area of a character to be expanded in the print data expansion memory, and the character area calculated by the character area calculation means is within a printable area of the print data expansion memory. It is provided with a print area inside / outside detecting means for detecting whether or not the print area is developed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is developed in a print data expanding memory for storing characters expanded in a printable area and a printable area stored in the print data expanding memory. Among the drawing character control methods of the printing device that prints characters, especially by providing a circuit that confirms whether the character data expanded in the print data expansion memory exists in the printable area, the burden of firmware is increased. The present invention relates to a drawing character control method for a printing apparatus, which reduces the processing speed, speeds up the process of expanding character data, and improves the performance of the apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A drawing character control system of a conventional printing apparatus will be described with reference to a print data expanding frame memory 35 shown in FIG. In the drawing character control method of the printing device, the character data transmitted from the computer main body is expanded into the printable area 39 of the print data expanding frame memory 35, and the character data 37 is expanded to indicate an unprintable area. Character data is not expanded in the area 41.

The print data developing frame memory 35.
As a pre-processing for expanding the character data 37, the drawing character control method of the printing apparatus needs to confirm whether or not the character data 37 transmitted from the computer main body is expanded in the printable area 39 for each character. It was When confirming whether the character data 37 is expanded in the printable area 39 of the print data expanding frame memory 35, the drawing character control method of the printing apparatus is as follows: the upper left corner of the character data "A" at the upper left end in the figure. With the origin as the origin, the size of the character data is added in the X and Y directions. After the addition, the drawing character control method of the printing apparatus compares the area of the character data obtained by the addition with the X coordinate Cx and the Y coordinate Cy of the boundary line of the non-printable area 41, and determines the value smaller than Cx and Cy. In this case, it is determined that the printable area exists. On the other hand, when the value is larger than the X coordinate Cx or the Y coordinate Cy of the boundary line of the unprintable area 41, the drawing character control method of the printing apparatus determines that the character data exists in the unprintable area 41. Based on the above judgment, the drawing character control method of the printing apparatus determines that the character data existing in the printable area 39 is expanded and the character data for one page is expanded and then printed on the printing paper, and the character data existing in the unprintable area is printed. Was not deployed.

[0004]

However, in the conventional drawing character control method of the printing apparatus, since it is confirmed for each character that the character data exists in the printable area of the print data expanding frame memory 35, When the amount of character data is large, it takes time for the confirmation processing by the firmware included in the CPU, the load of the firmware is large, and the processing of expanding the character data is delayed, which lowers the processing capability of the printing apparatus. was there.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional problems, and an object thereof is to confirm whether or not the character data expanded in the print data expansion memory exists in the printable area. It is an object of the present invention to provide a drawing character control method for a printing apparatus that reduces the burden on the firmware, speeds up the processing for expanding the character data, and improves the performance of the apparatus by providing the circuit for performing the operation.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a print data expansion memory for storing characters expanded in a printable area, and a print data expansion memory for storing the print data expansion memory. In a drawing character control method of a printing device for printing characters expanded in a printable area, a first register for storing a start address of a character expanded in the print data expanding memory, and the first register A second register for storing the X-direction and Y-direction sizes of the expanded character of the start address stored in, and a start address stored in the first register for storage in the second register. A character area calculator for calculating the area of the character to be expanded in the print data expansion memory by adding the sizes of the expanded character in the X and Y directions. And a printing area inside / outside detecting means for detecting whether or not the area of the character calculated by the character area calculating means is expanded in the printable area of the print data expanding memory. Use as a summary.

[0007]

According to the above construction, the start address stored in the second register is set to the start address of the character expanded in the print data expansion memory stored in the first register by the character area calculation means. The sizes of the characters to be expanded in the X and Y directions are added to calculate the area of the characters to be expanded in the print data expansion memory.
After the calculation, it is detected whether or not the character area calculated by the print area inside / outside detecting means is expanded in the printable area of the print data expanding memory. Since the characters that do not exist in the printable area of the print data expansion memory are not expanded by the detection, the burden on the firmware can be reduced, the process of expanding the character data can be speeded up, and the performance of the apparatus can be improved.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a control according to an embodiment of a drawing character control system of a printing apparatus of the present invention.

The drawing character control method of the printing apparatus is CP
U1 includes a print data drawing control device 3, a print data expanding frame memory 5, and a drawing character clipping circuit 7, and the drawing character clipping circuit 7 allows the existence of character data in the printable area of the print data expanding frame memory 5. By confirming, the process of expanding the character data is speeded up.

The CPU 1 controls the entire drawing character control system of the printing apparatus, and outputs the start address of the character to be expanded in the drawing character clip circuit 7 or the like.
The print data drawing control device 3 includes a character data generator 9,
The data writing control unit 11 and the address generation unit 13 are provided, and the character data transmitted from the computer main body is expanded in the print data expansion frame memory 5. The character data generation unit 9 generates a pattern of character data designated by the CPU 1. Data writing control unit 11
Performs a process of writing the pattern of character data generated by the character data generator 9 into the print data rasterizing frame memory 5. The address generation unit 13 generates an address to be written in the print data expansion frame memory 5 for one character. For example, a 12-dot character shown in FIG. To 6 dots. A print data expansion frame memory (hereinafter referred to as a frame memory) 5 expands character data by the data write control unit 11 at an address generated by the address generation unit 13 in a printable area.

The drawing character clip circuit 7 will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram showing the control of FIG. In FIG. 2, the drawing character clip circuit 7 includes character drawing position address storage registers 17a and 17b, drawing character size registers 19a and 19b, and addition circuits 21a and 21.
b, the print area inside / outside detection circuit 23 is provided, and it is determined whether or not the character data instructed by the print data drawing control device 3 from the CPU 1 exists in the printable area of the frame memory 5, and the printable area is detected. High level, if present,
A signal 15 for making a low level when it does not exist in the printable area is output to the character data generator 9.

The character drawing position address storage register (hereinafter referred to as a storage register) 17a is set in the CPU 1 to store the X-direction start address of the character to be expanded, and the storage register 17b is set in the CPU 1 and then input. The Y-direction start address of the character data to be expanded is stored. Drawing character size register (hereinafter,
It is called a size register. ) 19a stores the size in the X direction of the character data set and expanded in the CPU 1, and the size register 19b stores the size in the Y direction of the expanded character data input after being set in the CPU 1. The adder circuit 21a adds the size input from the size register 19a to the X-direction start address of the character data set and expanded in the CPU 1 input from the storage register 17a. The adder circuit 21b adds the size input from the size register 19b to the start address in the Y direction of the character data set and expanded in the CPU 1 input from the storage register 17b.

The print area inside / outside detection circuit 23 will be described in detail with reference to the block diagram showing the control of FIG. In the figure, the print area inside / outside detection circuit 23 is provided with a register 25.
a and 25b, comparators 27a and 27b, and an OR circuit 29, the coordinates of the start address A (Xa, Ya) and the coordinates of the end address B (Xb) which are the coordinates of the character to be expanded shown in FIG. , Yb) is formed in the printable area 39 of the frame memory 5 shown in FIG. Register 25a
Stores the X coordinate Cx of the boundary line (hereinafter referred to as the boundary line) between the printable area 39 and the unprintable area 41 of the frame memory 5 input from the CPU 1, and the register 25b stores C
The Y coordinate Cy of the boundary line of the frame memory 5 input from PU1 is stored. The comparator 27a compares the X coordinate Cx of the boundary line stored in the register 25a with the character area added by the adder circuit 21a, and if the X coordinate Cx is larger than the character area, sets the output signal to a high level. .
The comparator 27b compares the Y coordinate Cy of the boundary line stored in the register 25b with the character area added by the adding circuit 21b, and if the Y coordinate Cy is larger than the character area, sets the output signal to a high level. . The OR circuit 29 sets the signal 15 to the high level and notifies the character data generator 9 when the output signal of the comparator 27a or the comparator 27b is at the high level.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described.

First, after powering on the device, the CPU 1 sets the X-direction start address of the character data to be drawn in the storage register 17a of the drawing character clip circuit 7, and sets the Y-direction start address in the storage register 17b. Further, the CPU 1 sets the size of the character data to be drawn in the X direction in the size register 19a, and sets the size of the character data to be drawn in the Y direction in the size register 19b. After the setting, the adder circuit 21a adds the size of the size register 19a to the start address of the save register 17a, and the adder circuit 21b adds the size of the size register 19b to the start address of the save register 17b.

After the addition, the comparator 27a of the print area inside / outside detection circuit 23 determines the X coordinate of the boundary line of the frame memory 5 input from the CPU 1 stored in the register 25a and the character area of the added value of the addition circuit 21a. Compare with Cx. If the character area of the added value is larger than the address of the X coordinate Cx as a result of the comparison, the comparator 27a determines that the character to be drawn exists in the unprintable area 41 and sets the output signal to the high level. On the other hand, the character area of the added value is X
When it is smaller than the coordinate Cx, the comparator 27a determines that the character to be drawn exists in the printable area 39 and sets the output signal to the low level. Further, the comparator 27b compares the character area of the added value of the adder circuit 21b with the address of the Y coordinate Cy of the boundary line of the frame memory 5 which is input from the CPU 1 and is stored in the register 25b. If the character area of the added value is larger than the Y coordinate Cy as a result of the comparison, the comparator 27b determines that the drawn character is the non-printable area 41.
And the output signal is set to a high level. On the other hand, when the character area of the added value is smaller than the Y coordinate Cy, the comparator 27b causes the drawn character to have the printable area 39.
And the output signal is set to the low level.

When the comparator 27a or the comparator 27b is at the high level, the OR circuit 29 sets the signal 15 to the high level. When the signal 15 becomes high level, the character data generator 9 of the print data drawing controller 3 determines that the character data to be drawn exists in the unprintable area 41 of the frame memory 5, and the data write controller regardless of the instruction from the CPU 1. The drawing process is ended without outputting the character pattern data to 11. On the other hand, when the signal 15 of the OR circuit 29 is at the low level, the character data generation unit 9 determines that the character to be drawn exists in the printable area 39 of the frame memory 5, and instructs the data write control unit 11 to perform the character pattern according to the instruction of the CPU 1. Data is output and a character is drawn in the frame memory 1.

As a result, the drawing character clip circuit 7 determines whether or not the character to be drawn exists in the printable area 39 of the frame memory 5. Therefore, the load on the firmware of the CPU 1 is reduced and the character drawing of the printing device is reduced. Processing can be done quickly.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the first
Add the size in the X direction and the Y direction of the character at the expanded start address stored in the second register to the start address of the character expanded in the print data expansion memory stored in the register The load of the firmware is reduced because the character area expanded in the print data expansion memory is calculated and it is detected whether the character area is expanded in the printable area of the print data expansion memory. Thus, the process of expanding the character data can be speeded up, and the performance of the device can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing control according to an embodiment of a drawn character control system of a printing apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing control of a drawn character clip circuit.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing control of a print area inside / outside detection circuit.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing coordinates and the like of characters to be developed.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of character expansion to a print data expanding frame memory.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 7 Drawing Character Clip Circuit 17a, 17b Character Drawing Position Address Saving Register 19a, 19b Drawing Character Size Register 21a, 21b Adder Circuit 23 Printing Area Inside / Outside Detection Circuit 25a, 25b Register 27a, 27b Comparator 29 OR Circuit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A print data expansion memory for storing characters expanded in a printable area, and a printing device for printing characters expanded in a printable area stored in the print data expansion memory. In the drawing character control method of No. 1, a first register for storing a start address of a character expanded in the print data expansion memory, and an X direction of the expanded character of the start address stored in the first register And a second register for storing the size in the Y direction, and a size in the X and Y directions of the character to be expanded stored in the second register at the start address stored in the first register. A character area calculating unit that adds and calculates the area of the character expanded in the print data expanding memory, and the character calculated by the character area calculating unit. Drawing characters control method of the printing apparatus, characterized in that the area has and a printing area and out detecting means for detecting whether or not deployed in the possible areas of the printing of the memory for the print data rasterizing.