JPS6232593A - Electronic appliance with printing function - 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 of the Invention] The present invention relates to an electronic device with a printing function, and in particular, to an electronic device with a printing function.
This relates to electronic devices with a printing function used in electronic cash registration bags and the like.

[Background of the invention] In ECR, when a transaction is made, transaction information is printed not only on a receipt for the customer, but also on paper called a journal for the user's records, and the creation of the receipt and journal is This is done by typing the same pattern of characters twice, once on the receipt and once on the journal, using a shared printer called a shuttle printer (a memory that stores the dot matrix character pattern to be printed). There are things that are.

However, the method of printing the same pattern twice is not advantageous in terms of economics or printing speed, and journals kept by users are printed at 7 ohms/t, which suits the purpose. This method is far from ideal, as the receipt that the customer receives is printed in a format that suits its purpose. When a character is typed, a character of the same size is also typed on the journal side, so it is necessary to print two lines of normal characters, which wastes journal paper and reduces printing speed.

[Purpose of the invention] This invention was made in view of the above circumstances, and its purpose is to provide an electronic device with a printing function that eliminates paper waste and increases overall printing speed. .

[Summary of the Invention] In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides character generation means (
It is characterized by using means for compressing the dot character data from the computer graphics (CG), and outputting the compressed dot character data and the character data from the character generating means to the printing means, respectively. .

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 shows a functional block diagram of the ECR incorporating the embodiment, where l is the input section where various keys and OCR (barcode reading bag aI) are arranged, and 2 is the CPU, which controls the entire ECR. It controls the operation, and 3 is a memory that stores various programs, transaction data, etc. necessary for ECR, and 4
5 is a character generator (CG) that stores dot character patterns in a dot/matrix configuration to be supplied to the output device; 6 is a display buffer that temporarily stores dot character data to be displayed from CG 5; 7
is a display driving section which receives display data from the display buffer 6 and drives the display section 8.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a print buffer, which here consists of an l-line buffer that stores print data for one column.

The line buffer 9 receives dot character data (character pattern in a matrix of 9 rows x 5 columns) transferred from the CG 5 via the CPU 2 one column at a time, and sends the dot character data to the print drive section according to a read command (not shown). 10 and a print drive unit 11 . Here, the print drive unit 10 is coupled to all of the output lines of the l-line buffer 9, and the print drive unit 11 is connected to the first, third, and fifth lines of the output lines of the l-line buffer 9. Line and 9th
Connected only to the first row. Therefore, the print drive unit l
The dot character data from the CG 5 is input to O as it is, but the print drive section 11 inputs the first . Third. Compressed dot character data that extracts only the dots in the 5th and 9th lines, that is, characters with half height (
2) is input. Print drive unit 1
0 drives the receipt printing section 12 and the CPU 2
Inverter 1 when no main character command is applied.
3) 14, and O
The journal printing section 16 is driven via the R game) 15. However, when a main character command is applied from the memory 3, the AND gate 14 is disabled and the AND gate 17, which is enabled instead, passes the drive signal from the print drive unit 11 that receives half character data to the OR gate 14.
The journal printing section 16 is driven via the terminal 5.

The operation of the above configuration will be explained below.

First, the cashier inputs the product name and other input data into the CPU 2 using the OCR (barcode reader, not shown) of the input unit 1 or key operations regarding the product purchased by the customer. In response to this, the CPU 2 extracts the unit price data of the product from the memory 3 and creates one line of data to be printed.
The CG 5 is sequentially accessed and the corresponding dot character data is transferred to the 1-line buffer 9. First, printing is done from the receipt side. That is, the data is sequentially sent from the l-line buffer 9, which stores dot character data for one column, to the print drive section 10, and the receipt printing section 12 performs a printing operation, thereby printing one line on the receipt paper. Upon completion of printing one line, the receipt printing unit 12 notifies the CPU 2 of this fact. In response to this, the CPU 2 again accesses the CG 5 according to the created one-line data and transfers the dot character data to the one-line buffer 9. At this time, the CPU 2 outputs an 8-paper feed signal and drives the paper feed mechanism of the 1-line buffer 9 by the amount specified by the signal, feeds the receipt paper, and halves the 1-line print data as needed. When printing on journal paper in a compressed form), issue a half-character command and enable AND gate 17 (below, the operation will be explained assuming that a half-character command has been issued); in this case, l line buffer 9 The data of the first, third, fifth, and ninth lines of the dot character data in the 9 rows x 5 columns are input to the print drive section 11, and the data is ANDed.
It passes through the gate 17 and the OR gate 15 and is sent to the journal printing section 16. As a result, characters are printed on the journal paper with the same content as those printed on the receipt paper, but at approximately half the height. When the journal printing unit 16 completes printing one line, it generates a one line end signal and outputs a CP.
Tell U2. In response to this, the CPU 2 issues a one-sheet feed signal to drive the paper feed mechanism of the journal printing unit 16 to feed the journal paper, and accesses the CG5 according to the data of the next line to be printed. -Repeat the same actions as described above.

Figure 3 shows an example of the results printed on receipt paper B and journal paper J in this way. Characters with a height of t are printed. Therefore, the printing speed of the shuttle printer, which is a shared printer for both sheets, is increased, and journal sheets can be preordered.

Figure 4 illustrates another compression method, in which dots are removed from the second and fourth columns of characters in a dot matrix structure of 9 rows x 5 columns (character pattern stored in CG5). This shows that you can generate almost any character in your hand. To achieve this, it is necessary to modify the embodiment of FIG. 1. The configuration shown in FIG. 5 is capable of extracting dots at arbitrary positions from dot character data from CG5, including this compression method. That is, the character data compression unit 18 generates a compressed character pattern for the character pattern in the dot matrix configuration from the CG 5 in accordance with the dot extraction command for the selected row and the dot extraction command for the selected digit (selected column) given by the CPU 2. In the absence of the above command, for example, when printing on the receipt side, the character data pattern output from the CG 5 is supplied to the print buffer 9 without being compressed.

FIG. 6 shows yet another print pattern printed on journal paper. As can be seen from this figure, RF and 01 are the parts that are printed at the beginning of one line of printing on the journal paper, and are printed by two lines of printing on the receipt side. To achieve this, we need to extract R from the character generator.
The characters F and 0 and 1 are compressed using the method shown in Figure 2, and the compressed data is stored in an appropriate print register, and when printing one line on journal paper,
First, this print register is accessed to output a composite pattern of RF and 01, and then the character generator is accessed to extract the subsequent dot character data of 1 and 2.

The feature of the above embodiment is that when a receipt and a journal are created using the same printer in the ECR, compressed pattern characters are printed on the journal side as necessary, and characters from a character generator are printed on the receipt side. The reason lies in the fact that characters with clean fonts are printed.

In the embodiment, the same data is sent to both the receipt and the journal, but this is not the only option. Special fonts can be typed only on the journal side as needed to make registrations, returns, etc. stand out. You can also do this.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, this invention uses a means for compressing dot character data from a character generating means, and outputs the compressed dot character data and dot character data from the character generating means to a printing means. This makes it possible to save on printing paper and to increase the printing speed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. fjS1 is a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention incorporated into an ECR, Fig. 2 is a diagram showing a compression scheme used in the embodiment of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a diagram showing the operation results of the embodiment of Fig. 1. An example is shown, the left side shows what is printed on a receipt, the right side shows what is printed on a journal, Figure 4 shows another compression scheme, and Figure 5 shows a modified example of compression of Toft character data. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing still another print pattern printed on the journal. 1...Human power department, 2...CPU, 5...
...CG, ■? ...Receipt printing section, 16
. . . Journal printing section, 18 . . . Character data compression section. Patent applicant: Casio Computer Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] a dot character data generation means; a character data compression means for compressing data by removing predetermined dots from the dot character data output from the dot character data generation means; 1. An electronic device with a printing function, comprising printing means for printing compressed dot character data from a character data compression means.