JPH0776136A - Serially printing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a gap between lines and a streak inconspicuous by a method wherein each half content of recording paper is intermittently sent, sub lines contained in one line are divided into the even-th line and the odd-th line, and each either line is recorded. CONSTITUTION:When recording paper 12 is fed, in the first line all sub lines of an upper half of one line are copied and only odd sub lines are copied in a lower half part. Then, the recording paper is sent by a half line content in a main scan direction, and besides a thermal head 10 is returned to a left end. Further, the even sub lines of the first line and even sub lines of an upper half of the second line are copied while the thermal head 10 is being moved in the main scan direction. The recording paper 12 is sent by a half line content in the main scan direction in the same way, and the odd sub lines of the upper half of the second line and the odd sub lines of the lower half of the second line are copied. In the last line, the even sub lines of the upper half of one line are copied, all sub lines of the lower half are copied to complete copying of one sheet, and the recording paper 12 is discharged.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a serial printing method used in a serial printer in which a thermal head moves in a sub scanning direction and a recording paper moves in a main scanning direction.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, thermal recording methods include thermal recording in which an image is directly recorded on a thermal recording paper and thermal transfer recording in which ink of an ink film is transferred onto the recording paper. This thermal transfer recording is classified into a melting type in which a melted ink is transferred to a recording paper and a sublimation type in which the amount of the ink transferred to the recording paper changes according to thermal energy. For thermal transfer recording, in order to reduce the size and weight of the apparatus, a recording head in which a plurality of recording elements are arranged in the main scanning direction is used, and while moving this in the sub scanning direction, one line consisting of a plurality of sub lines is formed. A serial printer of the type in which after printing, the paper is fed in the main scanning direction to print the next line is often used.

However, in a serial printer, unevenness in paper feeding is likely to occur, so that the edges of adjacent lines in the main scanning direction overlap each other, the density of that portion increases, and streaks occur in the sub scanning direction. On the contrary, there is a defect that a gap is formed between lines and the recording paper is streaked in the sub-scanning direction.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is intended to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a serial printing method in which gaps between lines and lines are inconspicuous.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, in the serial printing method of the present invention, the recording paper is intermittently fed half a line at a time and the sub-lines included in one line are made even-numbered and odd-numbered. It is divided, and one of them is recorded.

[0006]

2 shows a serial printer to which the method of the present invention is applied, the thermal head 10 is reciprocated in the horizontal direction (sub-scanning direction (S)) by the head moving mechanism 11, and the recording paper 12 is a platen roller. It is conveyed in the vertical direction (main scanning direction (M)) by 13 and the conveying roller 14. As shown in FIG. 3, the thermal head 10 has a plurality of heating elements 10a to 10h arranged in the main scanning direction. The actual thermal head 10 is 160 × 16.
For example, 64 or 128 fine heating elements of 0 μm are arranged.

The thermal transfer ink ribbon 15 is supplied by a well-known ribbon cassette 16. The ribbon cassette 16 is attached to the rear of the thermal head 10 and the ink ribbon 15
Is slightly pulled out from the ribbon cassette 16 and passed between the thermal head 10 and the recording paper 12. The platen roller 13 and the transport roller 14 are driven by the pulse motor 17. Reference numeral 18 is a motor driver, and reference numeral 19 is a head driver that supplies a drive signal to the thermal head 10.

During recording, the ink ribbon 15 is brought into close contact with the recording paper 12 from behind by the thermal head 10, and the ribbon cassette 16 is moved together with the thermal head 10 in the sub-scanning direction by the head moving mechanism 11. The thermal head 10 heats the back of the ink ribbon 15 and transfers the melted or softened ink to the recording paper 12 to form ink dots. Gradation is expressed by the area of the ink dots transferred within one pixel.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart showing the printing procedure of the above-mentioned serial printer. When the recording paper 12 is fed, first, in the first row, all the sublines are printed in the upper half of the first row, and only the odd sublines are printed in the lower half. Next, the recording paper 12 is fed by half a line in the main scanning direction, and the thermal head 10 is returned to the left end along with this. Next, while moving the thermal head 10 in the main scanning direction, the even-numbered sublines of the first row and the upper-half even-numbered sublines of the second row are printed. Similarly, the recording paper 12 is fed by half a line in the main scanning direction, and the upper half odd sublines of the second line and the lower half odd sublines of the second line are printed.

In this way, the recording paper 1 is divided into one line.
While feeding 2 half a sheet, the even sub-lines and the odd sub-lines of the thermal head 10 are printed alternately. Then, in the final row, the even half sublines of one row are printed, all the full sublines of the lower half are printed, one printing is completed, and the recording paper 12 is ejected.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the manner in which the thermal head 10 prints on a line-by-line basis. Now, for example, the thermal head 10 which has completed printing of the odd-numbered sub-lines of the Nth row
This time, the recording paper 12 is fed by half a line, and the Nth line and N +
Print the middle part of the first line. In this case, the thermal head 10 has an even number of heating elements 10b, 10d, 10f,
Only 10h is driven and even sub-line 3 in the lower half of the Nth row
0a, 30b and even sub-line 3 in the upper half of the N + 1th row
1a and 31b are printed.

Next, the thermal head 10 prints the (N + 1) th line. In this case, the thermal head 10 drives only the odd-numbered heating elements 10a, 10c, 10e, and 10g, and prints the odd-numbered sublines 32a to 32d of the (N + 1) th row. In FIG. 3, the thermal head 10 is depicted as being shifted in the main scanning direction and the sub scanning direction for the sake of clarity, but in reality, the printing start position of the thermal head 10 is constant.

Although the above-described embodiment is a fusion type thermal transfer printer, the present invention can also be applied to a thermal recording type thermal printer and an ink jet printer. The present invention can also be applied to a color printer using cyan, magenta, and yellow ink films.

[0014]

As described above in detail, according to the present invention, by printing the recording paper half a line except the start line and the last line, the even sub-lines and the odd sub-lines are printed alternately. This is the same as recording on a recording paper in units of one subline, and it is possible to effectively suppress the occurrence of white stripes, step stripes, and the like, which are problems in serial printers.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing a serial printing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of a fusion type thermal transfer recording apparatus using the method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing the appearance of a print.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10 Thermal Head 10a to 10h Heating Element 12 Recording Paper 13 Platen Drum 15 Ink Ribbon

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printing head in which a plurality of printing elements are arranged in the main scanning direction is used, and the recording head is moved in the sub-scanning direction with respect to a recording sheet which is intermittently fed in the main scanning direction. In a serial printing method that records dots on sub-lines that extend in the sub-scanning direction, the recording paper is intermittently fed half a line at a time, and the sub-lines included in one line are divided into even-numbered and odd-numbered ones. Is recorded, so that one line is recorded by moving the recording head twice.