JP2832102B2 - Printing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printing control apparatus for printing document information by controlling the driving direction of a print head. The present invention relates to a printing control device and a printing control method that enable high-speed printing of a high-quality document as a whole document printing by adopting an optimum printing method of printing quality.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional printing apparatus, received document data is temporarily stored in a relatively small-capacity character buffer as printing apparatus control data, and actual printing is performed using this character buffer. This is performed by developing the data into didot data. Therefore, bidirectional printing is possible only when the character buffer has completely received all the data for one line of the next line by the time the printing device finishes developing the control data for one line. Further, this technology relies on the character buffer, but at a high speed, but due to physical limitations of the printing apparatus, line gaps have occurred in figures, ruled lines, and the like.

[0003]

However, such a simple printing apparatus has the following problems in document printing.

Since a large amount of control data such as bit image data is received, the capacity of the character buffer is exceeded and the character data is sequentially transferred in one direction from the beginning. It has to be developed, and one-way printing has to be performed, which causes a reduction in printing speed and a reduction in printing efficiency caused by inappropriate timing of determination of printing direction.

[0005] Further, since bidirectional printing is performed ignoring document types such as characters, figures, and ruled lines, a shift occurs between the first line and the second line at the time of printing figures, ruled lines, and the like, thereby deteriorating print quality. Was.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and determines whether or not the next line is suitable for bidirectional printing from the amount of line pitch, and controls the printing to achieve high-speed and high-quality printing. The purpose is to do.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a print control apparatus for printing document information by controlling a driving direction of a print head.
A line pitch setting unit for setting a line pitch of the document information; a line pitch determining unit for classifying the line pitch set by the line pitch setting unit; and a driving direction determination for determining a driving direction of a print head of a previous line. Means for controlling the drive direction of the print head so as to execute one-way printing or two-way printing according to the determination results of the row pitch determining means and the driving direction determining means.

In order to solve the above problem, a printing control device of the present invention is a printing control device for printing document information by controlling a driving direction of a print head, wherein a line pitch for setting a line pitch of the document information is provided. Pitch setting means, row pitch determining means for classifying the row pitch set by the row pitch setting means, drive direction determining means for determining the drive direction of the print head of the previous row, and a developed image of the current row A distance determining unit that determines a distance from the image starting point to the line pitch determining unit, the driving direction determining unit, and one-way printing or bidirectional printing according to the determination results of the distance determining unit. Control means for controlling the driving direction of the print head.

[0009]

[0010]

In the printing control method according to the present invention, the line pitch of the document information is set, and the unidirectional printing is performed according to the result of the type determination of the set line pitch and the result of the driving direction of the print head of the previous line. Alternatively, the driving direction of the print head is controlled so as to execute bidirectional printing.

In the printing control method according to the present invention, the line pitch of the document information is set, the type line pitch type determination result, the print head driving direction determination result of the previous line, and the expanded image of the current line are set. The driving direction of the print head is controlled so as to execute one-way printing or two-way printing according to the result of the distance determination from the upper end to the image start point.

[0013]

[0014]

[0015]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) Hereinafter, Embodiment 1 according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that, as long as the functions of the present invention are executed, the present invention is applied to a single device or a system including a plurality of devices.

FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of a print processing system showing an embodiment of the present invention. 1 is a central processing unit CPU for controlling the entire embodiment of the present invention. 2 is a unit for inputting document information including characters, figures, and the like. A keyboard KB consisting of a document information input key 9, a line pitch information input key 10, a ruled line input key 11, a vertical logo input key 12 for inputting a character whose height is doubled, an extended input key 13, etc. Reference numeral 3 denotes a display device CRT for displaying image information of document processing, and 4 denotes a printing device P for realizing printing.
RT. The printing apparatus PRT4 has been developed so that the data of the printed document can be actually driven by the print head.
A print data memory for storing expanded data of lines is included. The print data memory stores a print direction command 11, a print head drive command 12, and image information 13 obtained by expanding document information. FIG. 2 shows this state. Reference numeral 5 denotes a document memory for storing a document including characters, figures, and the like inputted by the keyboard KB2. For example, as shown in FIG. Stores document information consisting of text information. In addition, hiragana in FIG. 7 indicates the character code of the hiragana, 41 indicates a double-height area, 42 indicates an extended area (an area such as an illustration, a graph, and an outline), and 43 indicates a ruled line code.
Reference numeral 6 denotes a program memory. As shown in FIG. 5, the line pitch setting program 21, the first printing method determining program 22, the driving direction determining program 23, the backward developing program 24, the forward developing program 25, the print head control program 26, the distance calculating program 27, a distance determination program 28, a second printing method determination program 29,
A program 30 based on the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 is stored. Reference numeral 7 denotes a drive direction storage memory for storing current print head drive direction information. Reference numeral 8 denotes a data memory for storing a line pitch of a document including vertical logos, figures, ruled lines, and the like. These are executed by the central processing unit CPU1.

The line pitch setting program 21 is for setting the line pitch for characters and for vertical logos, figures, ruled lines, etc., in consideration of document types such as characters, vertical logos, figures, and ruled lines. It is. Further, the user himself / herself presses the line pitch information input key 10 of the keyboard KB2 to display the document information of one page, as shown in the tenth to twelfth lines in FIG. The line pitch can also be set by specifying the line spacing. First printing method determination program 2
No. 2 determines the type of the set row pitch. When the first printing method determination program 22 determines that the set line does not include the vertical logo, the ruled line, the extension, and the like, the drive direction determination program 23 determines the drive direction of the print head in the previous line. It is for. The reverse direction development program 24 is for selecting a reverse direction printing method and creating one line of development data as shown in FIG. The forward developing program 25 is for selecting a forward printing method and creating one-line developing data as shown in FIG.

FIG. 2 shows one line of expanded data in which the data of the print document is expanded so that the print head can actually be driven.
Command, print direction command 11, print head drive command 1
2. It is composed of image information 13 obtained by expanding document information. The print head control program 26 stores the current print head drive direction information in the area of the drive direction storage memory 7, and stores the developed data of one line as described above in the print data memory of the printing apparatus PRT4. The print direction command 11 and the print head drive command 12 control the print head drive direction. The distance calculation program 27, as shown in FIG.
This is for calculating a distance 33 from the upper end 31 to the image start point 32. The distance determination program 28
This is for judging whether the calculated distance 33 from the expanded image upper end 31 of the current line to the image start point 32 is within the reference value or other than the reference value. Second
The printing method determination program 29 determines the type of the line pitch of the next line.

The operation of the printing process according to the first embodiment having the above configuration will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S1, the line pitch setting program 21 stored in the program memory 6 considers the type of document such as characters, figures, and ruled lines,
Set the line pitch separately for figures, ruled lines, etc. Specifically, 13 to 14 in FIG. 7 showing the contents of one page of document information
When the document is composed of characters as in the line, the line pitch is set in the line information area on the document memory 5 by calculating the three elements of the upper margin of the document, the lower margin value, and the number of lines in advance in the format setting. Is set. Further, the user himself / herself presses the line pitch information input key 10 of the keyboard KB2 to display the document information of one page, as shown in the tenth to twelfth lines in FIG. By specifying the line interval, the line pitch can be set in the line information area of the document memory 5. On the other hand, when the document includes vertical logos, graphics, ruled lines, etc., as shown in the second to ninth lines in FIG. 7 showing the contents of the document information of one page, the line pitch is set as shown in FIG. The row information area of the document memory 5 is set based on the row pitch previously stored in a table in the area of the data memory 8 shown.

In step S2, if the line is composed of characters such as the first to third lines and the tenth to fourteenth lines in FIG. The CPU 1 compares the line pitch with the current print character size by the first printing method determination program 22 to determine whether the set line includes a logo or the like.
Specifically, when the line pitch is equal to or smaller than the current print character size, a logo or the like is included in the set line as shown in the second and third lines in FIG. If the size is larger than the character size, it is determined that the set line does not include a logo or the like as shown in lines 10 to 14 in FIG. Here, a logo or the like means double-width characters and a line spacing of almost 0.
Characters. FIG. 7 showing the contents of one page of document information.
If there is information such as an extension or a ruled line as shown in the fourth to ninth lines, it is determined that an expanded line or a ruled line with a reduced line pitch is included regardless of the above determination procedure. The information such as the ruled line, the vertical logo, the extension and the like can be input by the ruled line input key 11, the vertical logo input key 12, the extended input key 13, and the like of the keyboard KB2.

If it is determined in step 2 that the set line does not include a vertical logo, a ruled line, an extension, or the like, step S
At 3, the drive direction determination program 23 stored in the program memory 6 determines whether or not the data is in the forward direction based on the print head drive direction information of the previous row stored in the area of the drive direction storage memory 7. Is determined.

If it is determined in step S3 that the direction is forward, specifically, the current line is the 14th line in FIG. If it is determined that the driving direction of the print head on the line is the forward direction, in step S4, the reverse direction printing method is selected by the reverse direction developing program 24 stored in the program memory 6, and the reverse direction developing process is performed. For this purpose, one line of expanded data as shown in FIG. 2 is created.

In step S2, when the first printing method determination program 22 stored in the program memory 6 determines that the set line includes a vertical logo, a ruled line, an extension, etc. If the current line is the fourth line including the extended area as shown in FIG. 7 showing the contents of the document information of one page, in step 5, the forward expansion program 25 stored in the program memory 6 A forward printing method is selected, and one line of developed data as shown in FIG. 2 is created for the forward developing process.

Next, at step S6, the print head control program 26 stored in the program memory 6
Then, the current print head drive direction information is stored in the area of the drive direction storage memory 7, and the 1
The line development data is sent to the print data memory of the printing device PRT4, and the print head drive direction is controlled by the print direction command 11 and print head drive command 12 therein.

In step S7, image data 13 of one line of expanded data in the print data memory of the printing device PRT4 is printed by the printing device PRT4, and in step S8, the program memory 6 is printed. It is determined whether the printing of the previous line has been completed by the program 30 stored in the CPU 30. If the printing has not been completed, the processing from step S1 is repeated.
The line counter inside the PU 1 is compared with the number of lines in the document memory 5 and if they match, the process is terminated. For example, FIG. 8 shows a result of printing the document information of one page shown in FIG.

These are executed by the central processing unit CPU1.

Thus, high-speed document printing can be performed without sacrificing character quality.

(Embodiment 2) In Embodiment 1 described above, in the line pitch determination program stored in the program memory 6, only the line pitch of the current line is determined as a printing method determination target. According to the present invention, a more efficient document printing is made possible by determining a printing method in consideration of the character type information and the line pitch of the next line. In this method, as shown in FIG. 6, the distance 33 from the upper end 31 of the expanded image of the current line to the image starting point 32 is calculated, and it is possible to determine whether the printing is the forward printing or the backward printing based on the calculated value. Therefore, compared to the first embodiment, it is possible to contribute to higher-speed printing. Note that, as long as the functions of the present invention are executed, the present invention is applied to a single device or a system including a plurality of devices.

The operation of the second embodiment will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step S1,
The line pitch setting program 21 stored in the program memory 6 considers document types such as characters, figures, and ruled lines,
Set the line pitch separately for characters and vertical logos, figures, ruled lines, etc. More specifically, if the document is composed of characters as shown in lines 13 and 14 in FIG. 7 showing the contents of the document information of one page, the upper margin value, lower margin value, The line pitch is set in the line information area on the document memory 5 by calculating the following three elements. Also, you
The user himself inputs the row pitch information input key 1 of the keyboard KB2.
0, the line pitch of the document is specified on the document screen as shown in lines 10 to 12 of FIG. Can also be set to On the other hand, when the document includes vertical logos, graphics, ruled lines, etc., as shown in the second to ninth lines in FIG. 7 showing the contents of the document information of one page, the line pitch is set as shown in FIG. The document memory 5 is based on the row pitch stored in advance in a table in the area of the data memory 8 indicated.
It is set in the upper line information area.

At step S2, if the line is composed of characters such as the first to third lines and the tenth to fourteenth lines in FIG. The CPU 1 compares the line pitch with the current print character size by the first printing method determination program 22 to determine whether the set line includes a logo or the like.
Specifically, when the line pitch is equal to or smaller than the current print character size, it is determined that a logo or the like is included, and when the line pitch is larger than the current print character size, it is determined that the logo or the like is not included.
Here, the logo and the like include double-width characters and characters having a line spacing of almost 0. In addition, 4 in FIG. 7 showing the contents of one page of document information.
If there is information such as expansions and ruled lines as in the ninth to ninth lines, it is determined that expansions with reduced line pitches, ruled lines and the like are included regardless of the above determination procedure. The information such as the ruled line, the vertical logo, the extension and the like are stored in the ruled line input key 11 of the keyboard KB2.
The input can be made with the vertical logo input key 12, the extended input key 13, and the like.

If it is determined in step 2 that the set line does not include a vertical logo, a ruled line, an extension, etc., step S6
Then, the drive direction determination program 23 stored in the program memory 6 determines whether or not the print head drive direction information of the previous row stored in the drive direction storage area 7 is forward.

If it is determined in step S6 that the direction is the forward direction, specifically, the current line is the 14th line in FIG. If it is determined that the driving direction of the print head on the line is the forward direction, the reverse direction printing method is selected by the reverse direction developing program 24 stored in the program memory 6 in step S7, and the reverse direction developing process is performed. For this purpose, one line of expanded data as shown in FIG. 2 is created.

In step S2, if the first printing method determination program 22 stored in the program memory 6 determines that the set line contains a logo or the like, the program memory 6 is stored in step S3. With the stored distance calculation program 27, as shown in FIG.
The distance 33 to is calculated, and the distance determination program 28 stored in the program memory 6 determines whether the calculated distance 33 is within the reference value or other than the reference value. If this distance 33 is other than the reference value, step S
In step 4, if the second printing method determination program 29 stored in the program memory 6 uses the same procedure as the first printing method determination program 27 and the next line does not include a vertical logo, ruled line, extension, etc. If it is determined, the process returns to step S6, and the driving direction information of the print head of the previous row stored in the area of the driving direction storage memory 7 by the driving direction determination program 23 stored in the program memory 6 in the forward direction. It is determined whether or not there is. If it is determined in step S6 that the direction is forward, the program memory 6 is determined in step S7.
The reverse-direction printing method is selected by the reverse-direction developing program 24 stored in the storage device, and one-line developing data as shown in FIG. 2 is created for the reverse-direction developing process.

In step S3, when the distance determination program 28 stored in the program memory 6 determines that the calculated distance 33 is within the reference value, in step 4, the second printing is performed. Method determination program 29
If it is determined that the next line includes a vertical logo, a ruled line, an extension, and the like, in step 6, the driving direction determination program 2
If it is determined in step 3 that the drive direction information of the print head in the previous line is not the forward direction, the forward developing method is selected by the forward developing program 25 stored in the program memory 6 and the forward developing process is performed. For this purpose, one line of expanded data as shown in FIG. 2 is created.

Next, in step S8, the program memory 6 is stored on the basis of the one-line expanded data created as described above.
The current print head drive direction information is stored in the area of the drive direction storage memory 7 by the print head control program 26 stored in the print head control program 26, and the developed data of one line that has been developed is stored in the print data memory of the printing apparatus PRT4. The print head driving direction is controlled by the print direction command 11 and the print head drive command 12 therein.

In step S9, image data 13 of one line of expanded data in the print data memory of the printing device PRT4 is printed by the printing device PRT4, and in step S10, the program memory 6 is printed. It is determined whether the previous line has been printed by the program 30 stored in the printer. If not, the processing from step S1 is repeated.
The line counter inside the PU 1 is compared with the number of lines in the document memory 5 and if they match, the process is terminated.

These are executed by the central processing unit CPU1.

It should be noted that the reference value referred to here is a distance value which is 1/3 of the distance from the current upper end 31 of the developed image to the lower end 34 of the developed image, as shown in FIG. It is set at one third from the upper end 31 of the laser beam. The reason for the above setting is that if the distance 33 from the current expanded image upper end 31 to the image start point 32 is other than the reference value, it is considered that the print quality is not impaired even when bidirectional printing is performed. is there.

Thus, the printing method is determined in consideration of the character type information and the line pitch of the next line, thereby enabling more efficient document printing.

It goes without saying that this applies even to a specification for distinguishing any one of a vertical logo, a ruled line, an extension, etc. in a document.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention, the line pitch is set by the user, or characters defined by character codes included in document information and figures, illustrations, graphs, and logos not defined by character codes. And the like. According to the determined line pitch type determination result and the print head drive direction determination result of the previous line, one-way printing or bidirectional printing can be performed. Play. Further, according to another aspect of the present invention, the line pitch is set by a user, or characters defined by character codes included in document information and figures, illustrations, graphs, logos, and the like not defined by character codes are classified. Set the line pitch,
One-way printing or two-way printing according to the set line pitch type judgment result, the print head drive direction judgment result of the previous line, and the distance judgment result from the expanded image top of the current line to the image start point. Can be executed.

In the present invention, when the row pitch is set by the row pitch setting means, the row pitch determining means determines the type of the set row pitch, and the driving direction determining means determines the type of the preceding row. Determine the drive direction of the print head,
The distance calculating means calculates a distance 33 from the upper end 31 of the expanded image of the current line to the image starting point 32, and the distance judging means calculates the upper end of the expanded image of the current line calculated by the distance calculating means. Distance 3 from 31 to image starting point 32
3 performs a one-way printing method and a two-way printing method depending on whether it is within the reference value or other than the reference value, thereby enabling high-speed and high-quality document printing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the contents of one line of expansion data created for forward expansion processing and reverse expansion processing;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a document printing procedure according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a document printing procedure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the contents of a program area 6;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a procedure of a distance calculation program according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the contents of one page of document information.

FIG. 8 is a view showing a printing result of FIG. 7;

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) B41J 19/18 B41J 19/96 B41J 21/00

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A printing control device for printing document information by controlling a driving direction of a print head, comprising: a line pitch setting means for setting a line pitch of the document information; A line pitch determining unit for classifying a line pitch; a driving direction determining unit for determining a driving direction of a print head in a previous line; and a unidirectional printing according to a determination result of the line pitch determining unit and the driving direction determining unit. Or a control unit for controlling a driving direction of the print head so as to execute bidirectional printing. 2. A print control device for printing document information by controlling a drive direction of a print head, wherein: a line pitch setting means for setting a line pitch of the document information; Line pitch determination means for classifying the line pitch, drive direction determination means for determining the drive direction of the print head in the previous row, and distance determination means for determining the distance from the upper end of the developed image of the current line to the image start point. And control means for controlling the drive direction of the print head so as to execute one-way printing or two-way printing in accordance with the determination results of the row pitch determination means, the drive direction determination means, and the distance determination means. A print control device characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. A print control method for printing document information by controlling a drive direction of a print head, comprising: setting a line pitch of the document information; A print control method comprising: controlling the drive direction of the print head so as to execute one-way printing or two-way printing in accordance with the result of determining the print head drive direction. 4. A print control method for printing document information by controlling a drive direction of a print head, comprising: setting a line pitch of the document information; The drive direction of the print head is controlled so as to execute one-way printing or two-way printing according to the print head drive direction determination result and the distance determination result from the upper end of the developed image of the current line to the image start point. A printing control method characterized by the above-mentioned.