JPS60200285A - Dot pattern conversion method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Technical Field The present invention relates to a method for converting dot pattern information on a row or column basis into dot pattern information on a column or row basis.

Prior Art Conventionally, as a device for outputting characters from a computer,
There are printers, CRT displays, etc.

Since these output devices use alphanumeric characters, kana characters, kanji, etc., these dot patterns are built into the character generator in advance, and characters are selected using the corresponding character code. There is.

After selecting a character address in memory using a character code, the method of outputting a character dot pattern is by row by row (R
OW 5CAN) and column unit (COT-UMN 5CAN)
) There are two types. Line-by-line output means one character dot,
It divides the matrix representation (font characters) into horizontal lines and outputs them one by one, and is used when displaying characters from top to bottom while scanning horizontally like the scanning line of a CRT display. used.

On the other hand, column-by-column output means dividing the character dot matrix table JM (font characters) into vertical columns and outputting them one by one from the left. It is used when printing character by character.

By the way, recently, with the spread of general-purpose small computers, the scope of application of each output device has expanded, and in addition to recording, output devices are used for creating forms, issuing slips, editing documents, displaying graphics, etc. are increasing.

For this reason, it is desired to be able to switch the output of dot patterns by row or column at any time.

The method to achieve this is to store the dot pattern read from the memory into the -H buffer memory, and then convert the data from row to column and vice versa from column to row using software processing by the CPU in the device. There is.

However, since processing time is required for conversion, there are drawbacks such as a decrease in the printing speed of the printer, for example.

In addition, as a method to alleviate the above disadvantage (requires CPU processing time), after reading all the data of the smallest dot matrix that forms the image, the amount of data is reduced by selecting the necessary data. Although some methods can improve processing speed, they increase the number of circuit components and are economically disadvantageous.

Purpose An object of the present invention is to solve these problems by using a simple and inexpensive circuit configuration to convert a dot pattern input in rows or columns into nine trains per row according to the processing content of the output device. It is an object of the present invention to provide a dot pattern conversion method that can easily convert any pattern.

composition Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be explained in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a dot pattern conversion circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS.
This figure shows an example of a character design stored in a part of the memory in the figure.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a 8 dot x 8 dot font memory, 2-00 to 2-77 are memory elements, 3 is a large capacity memory, 4 is a row select section, 5 is a column select section,
6-θ to 6-7. 7-0 to 7-7 are eight-man powered OR gates, and 8 is a gate circuit.

The memory elements 2-00 to 2-77 in FIG. 1 have a 1-bit configuration, and data input and output can be separated. i:)
It is a tri-state output that simplifies the circuit. ili
) Cost is low when the number of characters increases. 1v)
Dynamic RAM because of its fast access time, etc.
is used to transfer the stored data from the mailbox 3 by downloading.

Character 11 A #l shown in Figure 2 (a) is 1.536
It is composed of dots, and the row direction (arrow Xx) is from XO・0 to
This is an example of a design in which 32 dots of x3.7 are divided into 48 dots of YO.0 to Y5.7 in one column direction (arrow Yy). Therefore, Xo-Y in FIG. 2(a)
O.

Each area indicated by XI-YO,..., X3 and Y5 is
As shown in FIG. 2(b), it has an 8×8 dot configuration,
The shaded area is one dot that can be expressed as Xx・OYy・0. From the memory 3 in FIG.
0~? ), Xo・1'YO・(0・7),...
X3・6Y5・(0~?), X3・7Y5・(0~7)
The fonts are sent to font memory 1 in the order indicated by . Note that data is sent every 8 bits (1 byte) in accordance with the memory access unit.

The above sending data is output from the row select section 4 by controlling the address bus and the Wl (write) signal.
are all enabled, and one of the outputs ■ to 0 of one column selector 5 is enabled, and stored in each memory element 2-〇〇 to 2-77 in correspondence with the above-mentioned Fig. 2. be able to. In this case, character design data is entered column by column. Also, the dot configuration of font memory 1 is 8.
Since the number of dots is as small as 8 dots, data transfer from memory 3 is performed every time font memory l sends data.

FIGS. 3(a) and 3(b) show image formation by laser beam scanning of a laser beam printer.

The image is formed on the photoreceptor by repeating laser beam scanning in the direction of arrow X, and then transferred onto transfer paper. 11A shows a vertical reading output, and FIG. 2B shows a horizontal reading output.

Note that the direction of arrow Y is the conveyance direction of the transfer paper.

Now, if you want to perform vertical reading output as shown in Figure 3(a) using the character design data stored in the font memory l, set the V/H signal in Figure 1 to "1",
The output DOO-D77 of the gate circuit 8 has an OR gate 6
Select the output TO-T7 from -θ to 6-7.

Since the V/H signal is at 1'', all of the outputs ■ to ■ of the row select section 4 are valid, and now, for example, when only the output O of the column select section 5 is valid, the memory elements in each column are 2-10.2-11°..., 2-17
The outputs of OR gates 6-0.6-1. ...
, 6-7 is input. At that time, or gate 6-0~6
Since the input terminals of -7 other than the above are "High", only the above input signals are output. Therefore, by sequentially switching between the outputs of the column selector 5, (Fig. 2(a), Cb)
Noxo-Co ~7)Yo・0, XI-(0-7)Y
The outputs DOO-D77 of the gate circuit 8 can be outputted in the order shown by O-0, Furthermore, by converting the parallel output into a serial signal and outputting data one dot (one bit) at a time in synchronization with the laser beam, it is possible to draw the vertical reading shown in FIG. 3(a).

Also, when performing horizontal reading output as shown in Figure 3(b) using character design data stored in the font memory 1 similar to the above, the V/H signal in Figure 1 should be reversed. is set to ``0'''', and the outputs YO to Y7 of the OR gates 7-0 to 7-7 are selected as the outputs D00 to D77 of the gate circuit 8.

Since the V/H signal is 0'', all of the outputs from column select section 5 to 0 are valid, and now, for example, when the output cuff of row select section 4 is valid, Memory element 2-07゜2-17...2-7
The outputs of 7 are OR gates 7-0, 7-1, and 7-1, respectively.
...It becomes the input of 7-7.

At that time, since the input terminals other than the above of the OR gates 7-0 to 7-7 are 'Hjgh', only the above input signal is output.Therefore, the output of the row select section 4 is
By switching ■, ■, ..., ■ in order, X3・7YO・(0~?) in FIG.
X3・7Y1・(0～?), X3・7Y2・(θ～7)
・The outputs of the gate circuit 8 DOG to D77 in the order indicated by
It can be output from. In the same way as above, by further converting the parallel output into a serial signal and outputting the data one dot (one bit) at a time in synchronization with the laser beam, it is possible to draw the horizontal reading shown in Figure 3(b). .

In this way, it can output row by row or column by column with less memory capacity than a normally used character generator, and the conversion speed is almost as good as a regular character generator. It can be output quickly.

For example, it is possible to display dot patterns in columns input from a mark sheet reader, OCR scanner, etc. on a CRT display in units of rows without going through the CPU, and it is also possible to display dot patterns input in units of rows in columns. It is possible to output to a dot printer in units.

Furthermore, by using it in combination with a regular character generator, it is possible to control various input/output devices with various dot patterns in both row and column units. This is useful when working with patterns.

Effects As explained above, according to the present invention, since the hardware processing is simple, input/output can be performed row by row or column by column according to the processing contents of various input/output devices without reducing the processing speed. This makes it easier to create complex dot patterns such as kanji and special symbols.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a dot pattern conversion circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of writing and reading in row units or column units in memory, and Fig. 3 is the print contents of the laser beam printer. FIG. 1: Font memory, 2-00 to 2-77: Memory element, 3: Memory, 4: Row selection section, 5: Column selection section, 6-0 to 6-7.7-0 to 7-7: Or game 1~. 8
: Gate circuit. Figure 1 XX O] 2 3 Figure 2 (b) 1□ XX, m (b) □X

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A memory element that stores dot information such as character patterns and is equipped with a chip select terminal, a memory in which the memory elements are arranged in a matrix and can be written/continued in rows and columns; It has chip select lines for each row and column for access, output data lines for each row and column, and lines for instructing switching for each row or column. A dot pattern conversion method characterized by converting a dot pattern such as from a column-by-column input into a row-by-row output, or outputting the dot pattern as a column-by-column input. .