JPS608079A - Thermal printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the titled printer capable of simply recording large and small letters with one thermal head equipped with the exothermic element rows to record large letters and the exothermic element rows to record small letters of the number equal thereto. CONSTITUTION:The exothermic element forming one letter by 24 dots is provided within a range of 3a in the rows of h1 and within a range of 2b in row of h2, and the exothermic element rows are exchanged according to the classification of letters. The record or large letter is obtained when recorded with the exothermic element rows of h1 and the record the of letter is obtained when recorded with the exothermic element rows of h2. The unmber of dots is not decresed even for a small letter, the quality of printing being not deteriorated and one piece of character generator common to both cases can be used.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a thermal printer for recording using a thermal paper recording method, a transfer recording method, etc., and in particular a serial printer that records by scanning a thermal head in the row direction of recording paper. It is a type that can record large and small characters with a single thermal head.

<Prior art> Conventionally, the configuration of a thermal head equipped with a heating resistor element is as follows.
It is equipped with a plurality of heating elements corresponding to a matrix of a predetermined size, and the heating elements are selectively energized to record desired characters.

When trying to change the size of recorded characters with such a thermal head, for example, uppercase letters are recorded using the entire matrix of a predetermined size, and lowercase letters are recorded using a predetermined part of the matrix of the predetermined size, for example, only a % matrix. This was done using methods such as recording using a .

When recording using this method, lowercase letters are recorded at the same dot pitch as uppercase letters, and the number of dots is halved, resulting in poor print quality. It is necessary to control the configuration and control, such as providing each character or converting an uppercase pattern to a lowercase pattern.
This method is complicated and costly.

On the other hand, in order to improve the printing quality of lowercase characters, it has been proposed to change the thermal head depending on the size of the characters. However, it is extremely inconvenient to replace the head depending on the size of the characters, and it is also uneconomical that the user must prepare a large number of heads.

Moreover, the head needs to be constructed to be easily attached and detached, and this structure also has various problems.

Purpose> The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the conventional thermal printer, and can print large prints using only one thermal head.

This makes it easy to record small characters. 3. That is, in the present invention, the printing quality is lowered even when recording lowercase letters, that is, the number of dots is the same as that for uppercase letters.

Furthermore, even when recording uppercase and lowercase letters, a common character pattern can be used to simplify the configuration and control.

For the above purpose, the present invention particularly includes a plurality of heating element rows for recording uppercase letters and a heating element row for recording the same number of lowercase letters with a pitch smaller than the plurality of heating elements. , and the heating element array is switched depending on the type of character.

It is configured to record lowercase letters. .

<Embodiment> FIG. 1 shows a front view of the thermal head as a serial printer that scans the thermal head in the row direction of recording paper.
A heating element row 1]1 forming 4 dots, and a heating element row h2 forming 24 dots for one character at 12 dots/h.
and is provided.

That is, in the hI column, 24 heating elements are arranged in a range of 33 (a=1-), and the +
In column 12, there are 24 heating elements in the range 2b (however,
b = 1 pharynx).

If the character "A'" is printed with the heating element row 111 above, a record of FIG. 2 (al) will be obtained, and if that character is printed with the heating element row of h2, a record of FIG. 2 (bl) will be obtained. In this case, , FIG. 2 (both al and ibl are recorded by selecting the same number of dots in the horizontal direction as appropriate).

-I=hL Although FIG. 1 shows an arrangement having a heat generating element row of hl and a heat generating element row of h2, h.

A plurality of rows of each of h2 and h2 can be provided.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a control circuit for the thermal head, and its specific configuration will be described below.

In FIG. 3, 1 is various information processing devices, 2 is an interface, 3 is a character generator that generates a character pattern corresponding to a character code signal, 4 is a thermal printer control unit, 5 is a driver control unit, and 6 is a head H 7 is a determining means for deriving output signals to output lines d, e, and f in response to a selection command for the heating element array hx + h2 + h3 of the head H.5 In this case, The configuration of the head H is somewhat different from that shown in FIG. 1, and shows an embodiment in which it is configured in three rows, 11, h2, and h3.

For example, hl is a heating element row that forms 24 dots for one character at 6 dots/tomo, 11□ is a heating element row that forms 24 dots for one character at 8 dots/kago, and h3 is a row of heating elements for 12 dots/'. It consists of a row of heating elements that form 24 dots for one character, and one head is large.

This allows you to record medium and small characters.

The information processing device 1 described above inputs various print data to the character generator 3 from line a through the input interface 2, and inputs various print control commands to the thermal print control section 4 from line b.

The print data input to the character generator 3 is converted into character pattern data in the character generator 3, and the character pattern data is input to the thermal print control section 4. The print control section 4
sends the character pattern data to the driver control unit 5, which drives the drive means 6 in response to the input cover turn, and drives the heating element array (III +
h2+ 113) and prints.

Note that the pattern data input from the print control section 4 to the driver control section 5 is input to the drive control section 5 three times every 3 bits, and the drive control section 5
] One row of pattern information of It is outputted to the drive means 6 at one time.

On the other hand, various print control commands inputted to the thermal print control section 4 from line b are determined by the string print control section 4, and control of each section is executed via line C.

By the way, when a selection command for the heat generating element array h1 0r h2 of the head H is inputted among the above print control commands, the printer I/control section 4 sends the command information to the determination means 7. Based on this command information, the determining means 7 determines which all column element columns)]]+h2+h3 have been selected, and based on this determination, the output lines d, e, f
One of the gate means 8, 9, 10 is closed via a specific line, and +V from the power supply line g is supplied to one of the selected heating element arrays (h] to 113).

On the other hand, the information on the heat generating element array determined by the determining means 7 is input to the detecting means 1, where it is converted into position information of the selected heat generating element array among the respective heat generating element arrays, and the information is converted to position information of the selected heat generating element array among the heat generating element arrays. 12 is input.

Thereby, the position of the head H is controlled according to the selected heating element row.

Although it has been described that the heating element array is selected based on commands from various information processing devices 1, the present invention is not limited to this.

Effect> As described above, in the thermal printer of the invention, one thermal head H is provided with a plurality of heating element rows having different dot densities per unit length, and the heating element rows are arranged in response to the type of character to be recorded. Since it is simply switched and driven, there is no need to go through the trouble of replacing the head or preparing a replacement head, and it is possible to record characters of different sizes with one head. The font size can be changed at any time, and this can be achieved at low cost.

Furthermore, by making the number of dots in each of the plurality of heating element rows the same, one common character generator can be used and each circuit element can also be shared, simplifying the configuration and control and reducing costs. It has the characteristic that it can further promote

[BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS] FIG. 1 is a front view showing an example of the head configuration of the thermal printer of the present invention, FIGS. FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram showing a control configuration of a thermal printer according to the present invention.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In a serial type thermal printer that sequentially prints by moving a thermal head, the head is provided with a plurality of rows of heating elements having different dot densities per unit length, depending on the type of character to be recorded. 1. A thermal printer characterized in that said heating element row is switched and driven by said heating element array. 2. The thermal printer according to claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of heating element rows has the same number of elements (dots) constituting one character.