JPH085218B2 - Document printing device - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a document printing apparatus used in a word processor or the like.

[Summary of the Invention] According to the present invention, in a document printing apparatus including a serial printer such as a thermal transfer printer or a dot impact printer, printing of one line or more at a time is performed by a printing operation of one line of a print head. Thus, the printing speed is increased to enable efficient printing.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, in a word processor equipped with a serial dot printer, when printing the contents of a text memory that stores character codes, a character code for one line read from the text memory is used by a character generator. It is converted into a character font pattern according to the specified character size and transferred to the one-line print buffer. The one line character font pattern stored in the print buffer is printed in synchronization with the one line printing operation of the print head.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Since one line is printed by the print operation for one line of the print head as described above, the number of vertical pins of the print head may be plural including the space between lines depending on the specified character size. Even if lines could be printed, only one line at a time could be printed.

That is, as shown in FIG. 5, the print head has 48 vertical pins, and the designated character size is 48 × 48 dots in the first line and the second line.
24 x 24 dots, 3rd to 5th lines When printing characters of 20 x 20 dots out of 5 lines of 20 x 20 dots, 2 lines including the line spacing (8 dots) at a time Although it is possible to print one minute, even in such a case, one line can be printed by one line movement of the print head, and therefore five lines can be printed in five lines.
It has the drawback of requiring multiple line breaks, which slows down the printing speed accordingly.

An object of the present invention is to enable printing of one line or more at a time by operating the print head for one line.

[Means for Solving Problems] Means of the present invention are as follows.

The document printing apparatus according to the present invention is used for a word processor or the like, and has a thermal transfer printer or the like.

The number of vertical dots in the line print buffer corresponds to the number of vertical pins in the print head, and the dot pattern that can be printed by the print operation of this print head in the row direction can be stored. For example, the number of head pins is 48 pins. In this case, the number of vertical dots is 48 dots and the pattern of horizontal dots corresponding to rows is stored.

The character font pattern generating means is, for example, a character generator that generates character font patterns corresponding to various character sizes.

The first transfer means obtains the character font pattern for one line of the document from the character font pattern generation means in correspondence with the character size when the document is printed, and transfers the character font pattern to the line print buffer. For example, the character code for one line is read from the text memory that stores the character code, the character font pattern corresponding to the specified character size is obtained from the character generator as the character font pattern generating means, and transferred to the line print buffer.

If the second transfer means can transfer at least a part of the character font pattern of the next and subsequent lines of the document including the line pitch after the transfer of the character font pattern for one line by the first transfer means. The pattern is transferred to the line print buffer by referring to the character font pattern generating means. In this case, for example, the number of head pins is 48
If it is a pin, it is possible to determine whether transfer is possible or not depending on whether or not the vertical pointer value of the row print buffer is less than 48. If transfer is possible, a space corresponding to the pitch between lines is secured in the line print buffer, and then the transferable part of the character font pattern of the next line is obtained from the character generator and transferred to the line print buffer. To do.

The print control means prints this dot pattern after the number of vertical dots, which is the number of dots to be printed by the printing operation in the line direction, has been transferred to the line print buffer. That is, the printing operation for one line of the print head causes the character font patterns for one line or more to be collectively printed.

The transfer control means, immediately after the printing is completed, immediately before the second
The character font pattern of an untransferred portion other than a part of the character font pattern transferred by the transfer means is obtained by referring to the character font pattern generation means, and the line print is performed from the untransferred portion of the obtained character font pattern. Start the transfer to the buffer.

[Operation] The operation of the means of the present invention is as follows.

That is, when the case where the number of pins of the print head is 48 is described as an example, the row print buffer can store a dot pattern of 48 dots in the vertical direction and a row corresponding to the rows.
In such a case, one character size is 48 x 48 dots
When the character font patterns for the lines are transferred to the line print buffer by the first transfer means, the dot patterns for the number of head pins are stored in the vertical direction of the line print buffer. Since the dot pattern to be printed by the printing operation in the direction has been transferred, the print control means prints the dot pattern for one line of 48 × 48 dot characters stored in the line print buffer. Let

Next, when a character font for one line having a character size of 24.times.24 dots is transferred to the line print buffer by the first transfer means, the line print buffer has 24 lines in the vertical direction.
In this case, because there is a dot empty (margin),
Since a part of the character font pattern of the next line including the line pitch can be continuously transferred into the line print buffer, the second transfer means corresponds to the line pitch, for example, 8
After securing a space for dots in the line print buffer, a part (16 dots) of the character font pattern of the next line corresponding to the specified character size (for example, 20 × 20 dots) is transferred to the line print buffer. As a result, when the vertical 48-dot pattern is stored in the line print buffer, the print control means prints the dot pattern in the line print buffer.

Therefore, depending on the designated character size, the printing operation for one line of the print head can collectively print the patterns for one line or more. Especially when the number of pins of the print head is 48
When printing a character font pattern for two lines with a character size of 20 × 20 dots, two lines can be printed at one time including the space between lines.

In addition, one of the character font for one line consisting of 24 × 24 dots and the character font for one line consisting of 20 × 20 dots has a vertical length of 16
When dots have been printed, after this printing is completed, the transfer control means sets the character font pattern of the untransferred part, that is, 20 characters.
Transfer is started to the line print buffer from the remaining vertical 4 dots of the character font of 1 line consisting of × 20 dots.

Therefore, the remaining portion is surely printed by the next printing operation.

[Embodiment] An embodiment will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4. This embodiment is applied to a word processor.

Structure FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing the basic structure of this word processor. The CPU 11 controls a document creating process, a formatting process, a printing process and the like according to a microprogram stored in advance. That is, the CPU 11 uses the input unit 1
Document data and designated format data keyed in from 2 are fetched via the input control unit 13 and stored in the text memory 14.

The text memory 14 is a memory for storing documents which is composed of a RAM, and stores the input and created document data in a character code format, and also stores the character codes by dividing them by line units and corresponding to each line. It is configured to store setting format data. Here, the setting format data is line format data indicating the format of the corresponding line, and is composed of a character size, a line pitch, and a digit pitch. The character size is set to any one of 16 dots (16 x 16 dots), 24 dots (24 x 24 dots), 32 dots (32 x 32 dots), and 48 dots (48 x 48 dots). . The digit pitch is a value obtained by adding the inter-digit pitch to the horizontal character size.

In response to the print command from the input unit 12, the CPU 11 reads the character code in the text memory 14 using the work memory 19 line by line and transfers the corresponding line format data to the work memory 19. The character code for one line read from the text memory 14 uses the character generator corresponding to the specified character size of the line format data among the plurality of character generators 15 to 18 provided corresponding to the character size. Each character is converted into a corresponding character font pattern and sequentially stored in the print buffer 20.
In this case, the CPU 11 continuously transfers to the print buffer 20 whether or not there is a predetermined empty area in the vertical direction of the print buffer 20, that is, at least a part of the character font pattern of the next line including the line pitch. Determine whether it is possible. As a result, if continuous transfer is possible, a space corresponding to the pitch between lines is secured in the print buffer 20, the character code of the next line is read from the text memory 14, and the character font corresponding to the specified character size of the line is read. The pattern is read from the character generator and stored in the print buffer 20.

The print control unit 21 controls the drive of the carriage 22 and the print head 23 that form the thermal transfer printer, and prints the contents of the print buffer 20 on the recording paper. The print head 23 has a thermal print element of 48 pins in the vertical direction, and the print buffer 20
Has a configuration capable of storing a vertical dot number pattern (48 × horizontal dot number) that matches the number of head pins. When the print control unit 21 finishes printing all the contents of the print buffer 20 while moving the print head 23 in the horizontal direction by the carriage 22, the feed roller 24 is driven to feed the paper (line feed). The roller 24 is driven by 48 dots for each line feed.

Next, the configuration of the work memory 19 will be described with reference to FIG. The work memory 19 has a line counter for the text memory 14 and various registers shown below.

X register, Y register ... In the plane coordinates where the upper left position of the print buffer 20 corresponds to the origin of the XY coordinates,
An XY pointer that stores the XY coordinates.

x _P register: A register that stores the digit pitch in line format.

y _P register: A register that stores the character size in line format or the pitch between lines.

y ₀ register: A pointer that indicates the vertical read start position when the remaining part of the character font pattern for one line has already been printed and is read from the character generator.

Operation FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the printing operation, which will be specifically described below with reference to the printing example shown in FIG. Note that FIG. 4 shows the process of printing a document for 5 lines according to the line format (see FIG. 1) set in the text memory 14, and in this case, a document for 5 lines is printed 3 times. Can be done with a line break.

The first printing CPU 11 responds to the printing command from the input unit 12 and starts executing the printing operation according to the flowchart of FIG.
First, the line counter in the work memory 19 is set to "1" and the Y register is set to "0". After initialization processing (step S1), the text memory is set according to the value "1" of the line counter. Address 14 and read the character size "16" and digit pitch "24" from the specified address area to correspond to the work memory 19.
y _P register is set to x _P register (step S2).
Then, selecting and designating y _P register corresponding to the character size set in 16-dot character generator 15 of the character generator 15 to 18 (step S
3). After that, in step S4, the first character code of the first line of the text memory 14 is specified, the X register is cleared (step S4), and the character font pattern corresponding to the first character code is read from the 16-dot character generator 15 ( Step S5), the coordinate position of the print buffer 20 (0,
0) (step S6). When the character font pattern for the first character is stored in the print buffer 20 in this way, in order to increment the value of the X register,
Digit pitch "24" in x _P register to value "0" in X register
Is added (step S7). As a result, the value of the X register is incremented by one digit pitch and becomes "24".
Then, in the next step S8, it is judged whether or not the character font pattern for one line is stored in the print buffer 20 based on the value of the X register. Return to S5, text memory
The process of sequentially reading the character font pattern corresponding to the character code of the first line in 14 from the 16-dot character generator 15 and storing it in the print buffer 20 is repeated.

If this by storing the first line of the character font pattern to a print buffer 20 ends, in order to update the value of the character size of the Y register, the character size in the y _P register to the value of the Y register "0", "16 Is added (step S9). As a result, it is checked whether or not the value of the Y register exceeds the number of vertical dots of the print buffer 20, that is, the number of head pins "48" (step S10), but the value of the Y register is now "1".
6 ”, and thus there is a sky of 32 dots in the vertical direction of the print buffer 20. In such a case, in order to check whether at least a part of the character font pattern of the next line including the line pitch can be continuously transferred to the print buffer 20, the process proceeds to step S20, and one line of the text memory 14 is read. After setting the y _P register from the eye reads between the lines pitch "8 dots", the value of the Y register is incremented rows pitch by adding it to the Y register (step
S21). As a result, in the next step S22, it is checked whether the value of the Y register has become "48" or more. Now, since the value of the Y register is "16 + 8 = 24", at least part of the next row can be continuously transferred. Then, in step S26, "1" is added to the value of the row counter in the work memory 19 to update the value. After that, the process returns from step S27 to check whether the printing for one page is completed according to the value of the line counter and returns to step S2.

As a result, the character code of the second line is read from the text memory 14 one character at a time to correspond to the specified character size.
It is converted into a character font pattern using the dot character generator 15 and sequentially stored in the print buffer 20 (steps S2 to S8). In this case, since the value of the Y register is "24", in the print buffer 20, an inter-line space of 8 dots is secured below the character font pattern of the first line, and then the second line from the 24th vertical line. All of the eye character font patterns are stored. When the character font pattern for the second line has been stored in the print buffer 20 in this way, the value "24" in the Y register is updated by the character size "16 dots", resulting in the value "40". (Step S9). As a result, the process proceeds from step S10 to steps S20 to S22, and it is further checked whether or not the character font pattern of the next line including the line pitch can be continuously transferred to the print buffer 20.
In this case, the inter-line pitch of the second line is "16 dots", so the value of the Y register is updated to "56", and as a result, it is determined that continuous transfer is impossible. With this, the process proceeds to step S23, and after subtracting "48" from the value "56" of the Y register,
The patterns in the print buffer 20 are collectively printed by driving the carriage 22 in accordance with the patterns stored in the print buffer 20 while moving the print head 23 to the right (step S24).

As a result, during the printing operation for one line of the carriage 22, the character font pattern for two lines of 16 dot size including the line pitch is printed at one time as shown in FIG. In this case, only part (8 dots) of the inter-row pitch of the second row is formed.

When all the patterns in the print buffer 20 have been printed in this way, the print head 23 is moved to the left and line feed processing is performed to drive the feed roller 24 by 48 dots (step S25). Then, after updating the row counter (step S26), the steps from step S27 are performed.
Return to S2.

Second printing First, set the character code of the third line from the text memory 14 to 1.
Each character is read out, converted into a character font pattern using the 24-dot character generator 16 corresponding to the specified character size, and sequentially stored in the print buffer 20 (step S2
~ S8). At this time, since the value of the Y register is "8",
All the character font patterns on the third line are stored in the character buffer 20 after securing a space between the lines of 8 dots (8 dots remaining on the space between the second lines). And Y
The register value is updated to "8 + 24 = 32" (step S9), and the line spacing pitch is also included in "32 + 8 = 40".
(Step S21). Therefore, even in this case, at least a part of the character font pattern of the next line can be continuously transferred to the print buffer 20, and the process returns to step S2 after the line counter is updated.

Then, when the character code of the fourth line is read from the text memory 14 and the character font pattern corresponding to the specified character size is stored in the print buffer 20, the value of the Y register is “40 + 24 = 64”, and therefore the number of head pins. The value is "48" or more, which is detected in step S10.

The printing operation is started in response to this detection (step S1
1), change the pattern stored in the print buffer 20 to the fourth
Print as shown. In this case, since only a part (8 dots) of the character font pattern on the fourth line is stored in the print buffer 20, the character font pattern on the fourth line as well as the character font pattern on the third line including the line spacing is included. A part of is printed together. After that, the process proceeds to step S12, and line feed processing is performed.

Third printing First, subtract “48” from the Y register value “64”, set the result “16” in the y ₀ register, and then change from the character size “24” in the y _P register to the y ₀ register. The value "16" is subtracted, and the value "8" is set in the y ₀ register (step S13). As a result, the reading start position when the remaining pattern, excluding a part of the character font pattern already printed on the 4th line, is read from the 24-dot character generator 16 is set in the y ₀ register. And step
After clearing the value of the Y register in S14, the flow advances to step S15 to specify the first character of the designated line of the text memory 14 and clear the value of the X register. in this case,
Since the line counter is not updated after the second printing, the leading character code of the fourth line is designated again. Then, the character font pattern corresponding to this character code is
When reading from the 24-dot character generator 16, the remaining pattern is read from the value of the y ₀ register to remove the pattern already printed previously (step S16. This is stored in the print buffer 20 and the value of the X register is updated. However, the same processing is repeated until the pattern for one line is stored in the print buffer 20 (steps S16 to S19).

Then, in step S28, the value "8" in the y ₀ register is subtracted from the character size in the y _P register, and the value "16" is subtracted.
To the Y register. Then, the line pitch "16" is added to the value "16" of the Y register. In this case,
Since it is less than “48”, the process proceeds from step S22 to step S26, the line counter is updated, and then the process returns to step S2.

Then, after storing the character font pattern of the fifth line in the print buffer 20, the value of the Y register is updated to "32+
16 = 48 "and" step S9). Then, the line pitch "0" is updated (step S21). This makes Y
Since the value of the register becomes "48" or more, the process proceeds to step S23, whereby the value of the Y register becomes "0". Then, print processing (step S24) and line feed processing (step S24)
25) After that, the row counter is updated, and the process returns to step S2.

Therefore, as shown in FIG.
The character font pattern on the fourth line is printed together with the remaining patterns on the line.

Hereinafter, the same operation is repeated until the end of printing for one page is detected in step S27.

Modified Application Example (1) Although the above-described embodiment uses a plurality of character generators according to the character size, a character font pattern of a basic size may be reduced or enlarged.

(2) Further, although the present invention is not limited to a model of a multi-point printing method capable of selectively printing on a plurality of character sizes, in this case, a print head having about twice the number of pins as the character size may be used. Good.

(3) Further, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to a thermal transfer printer or a word processor.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, it is possible to print one line or more at a time by the operation of one line of the print head, so that the printing speed can be increased and an enormous document can be printed efficiently. It has the effect of being able to.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a block circuit diagram showing a basic configuration of a word processor to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a work RA shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the data in M, FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the printing operation, FIG. 4 is a printing state explanatory diagram, and 5
The figure is a conventional printing state explanatory view. 11 ... CPU, 14 ... Text memory, 15-18 ... Character generator, 19 ... Work memory, 20 ... Print buffer, 21 ... Print control unit, 23 ... Print head.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A line print buffer in which the number of vertical dots corresponds to the number of vertical pins of a print head, and a dot pattern which can be printed by the print operation of the print head in the line direction can be stored, and various line sizes can be used. A character font pattern generating means for generating a corresponding character font pattern, and a character font pattern for one line of the document when the document is printed, obtained from the character font pattern generating means corresponding to a character size, and the line print buffer. To the first transfer means, and after transferring the character font pattern for one line by the first transfer means, at least part of the character font pattern on and after the next line of the document can be transferred including the line pitch. If so, second transfer means for transferring this pattern to the line print buffer with reference to the character font pattern generation means, The print control means for printing this dot pattern after the number of dot patterns to be printed by the print operation in the row direction is transferred to the line print buffer, and the print control means for printing the dot pattern immediately after the printing is finished. A character font pattern of an untransferred portion other than a part of the character font pattern transferred by the second transfer means is obtained by referring to the character font pattern generation means, and the line is formed from the untransferred portion of the obtained character font pattern. A document printing apparatus comprising: a transfer control unit that starts transfer to a print buffer.