JPS5931750B2 - pattern generator - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention This invention provides pattern quality ι(
The present invention relates to a pattern generation device that is excellent and has a high pattern generation speed.

For convenience of explanation, the case of printing will be taken as an example below.

Conventionally, in order to print kanji using a printer, there are two methods: a method of printing matrix type directly onto a recording medium, such as a printing kanji telegraph machine, a wire dot printer, a thermal printer, an electrostatic printer, and an inkjet printer. There is a printing method based on the pixel format. Among these printing methods, the printing method using matrix type has excellent printing quality, but since it is a pure mechanical type, the printing speed is slow at 2 to 3 characters/second, and it is not suitable for high-speed printers. On the other hand, the pixel-based printing method is suitable for Kanji printers because it provides flexibility in character type selection and can be expected to increase printing speed. However, in pixel-type printers, print quality is not uniquely determined, and in order to maintain print quality, the necessary number of pixels is given according to a predetermined character size. For this reason, wire dot printers, thermal printers, and electrostatic printers use wires, thermal heads, and needle electrodes as recording parts, so the number of pixels cannot be changed and the size of characters is restricted. In contrast, with inkjet printers, the printing position can be controlled by changing the amount of charge, so you can print any character size,
Any print quality can be obtained.

Among kanji, the one with the best printing quality is the Mincho font, which requires 24 x 24 pixels to represent commonly used kanji, and 3 pixels for kanji that can appear in people's names, place names, etc.
2×32 or more pixels are required.

Conventionally, when printing small kanji characters (for example, less than 12 points) using an inkjet printer using 32 x 32 pixels, ink particles collide with the overlapping pixels, that is, where the printed image is wet, causing the ink to drop. This method has disadvantages such as the generation of mist, which reduces the clarity of printing, and the increase in the number of pixels, which makes it impossible to improve printing speed. In order to solve these drawbacks, this invention improves the clarity of the print and increases the printing speed by thinning out pixels to the extent that the print quality does not deteriorate when the font is small (for example, less than 12 points). , and the font is large (e.g. 12 points or more)
is characterized by ensuring print quality without thinning out pixels, and its purpose is to realize two types of pixel configurations with one character generation device.

This invention will be explained below. Figure 1 shows an example of kanji in the Mincho typeface, which is composed of a 32 x 32 dot matrix, with the upper left corner (1, 1) as the starting point of the matrix. Pixels to be printed and recorded are indicated by o marks. Figure 2 shows that in Figure 1, (]) two or more o marks are not consecutive in the vertical direction;
4) Do not omit pixels when arranging them in a horizontal row, (
1ii) thinning out pixel groups in two or more consecutive vertical columns so that they are staggered, that is, in a staggered manner;
This is an example of displaying kanji obtained by

In Fig. 3a, among arbitrary adjacent pixels 1, 2, 3, and 4,
Focusing on pixel 4, FIG. 3b is a pattern diagram with pixel 4 as the center, and shows the relationship among pixels 1 to 4.

In this state, the above (1), (Ii), (11)
A summary of the three conditions of 0 is shown in Table 1.
ν1J▲2'\ In the table, "O" indicates that no pixel exists, 11' indicates that a pixel exists, x indicates either condition, and Z indicates the output obtained after conversion.

FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the present invention, in which the example shown in FIG. 2 is realized from the example of character structure shown in FIG.

In this figure, 11 is a character pattern memo I8 of 32 x 321024 bits per character, 12 is a thinning circuit, a 32-bit shift register 13, a NAND circuit 14 having arbitrary pixels such as 2 and 3 as inputs, and pixel 1. NO in input
It is composed of a T circuit 15, a pixel 4, a NAND circuit 14, and an AND circuit 16 having the NOT circuit 15 as an input. 1
7 is a switch for large and small letters, 18 is external synchronization 19
20 is an AN having the AND circuit 16 and the 32-digit clock counter 18 as inputs.
D circuit, 21 is a 32-step reference voltage generation section, 22 is a video output supplied to the charging section of the quick jet printer, 23 is a signal line for resetting information to the character pattern memory 11, and 24 is the character pattern memory 11. 25 is a clock input that controls the gate of the 32-step reference voltage generating section 21, 26 is a changeover switch that operates in conjunction with the changeover switch 17, and 27 and 28 are frequencies 2f0 and F.

This is the clock input. Next, the operation will be explained.

Before the character pattern memo 1 river 1 matrix element (1, 1) starts, the 32-bit shift register 13 is 80.
It has been cleared. Therefore, if we assume that element (1, 9) is pixel 4 according to the example in FIG.
, 2 is in the state of 60”°, and pixel 3 is in the state of 611, so N
The output of the AND circuit 14 is "1-the output of the NOT circuit 15 is also 61-, so the output of the AND circuit 16 is 81". At this time, since the state 9 of the 32-decimal clock counter 18 is controlled by the external synchronization 19, the 32-step reference voltage generator 21 generates a value 9e0( EO generates a pulse with the reference voltage to be printed) and supplies it to the charging section of the IC jet printer. Next, assuming that element (1, 10) is pixel 4, pixel 1 is in the previous state. Since the output 61" of the AND circuit 16 is inserted, and the pixel 2 is still in the "0" state and the pixel 3 is in the "1" state, the output of the NAND circuit 14 is 60", which is the output of the NOT circuit 15. is 61- Therefore, the output of the AND circuit 16 becomes 0.

Therefore, the information of the pixel corresponding to the element (1, 10) is not supplied to the charging section of the IC jet printer. By repeating this operation, for example, 1024 times in the case of a 32×32 pattern, the state shown in FIG. 1 is converted to that shown in FIG. 2, and a voltage for charging is generated.

In this way, in the case of small letters, the character pattern memo 1 is read out and converted using the clock of frequency 2f0, but the 32-step reference voltage generator 21, which generates the voltage for charging the ink, uses the frequency F.

Since the charging time is controlled by , the charging time is not shortened. This can be seen from the fact that in the converted pattern, there are no two consecutive dots of necessary signals in the vertical direction, and there are no more than 16 dots.

In this way, in the case of small characters, the minimum charging time for printing ink to the target position can be ensured, and the printing speed can be doubled. Moreover, in the case of Oaza, the clock changes from frequency 2f0 to F by switching the selector switch 26 to the Oaza side.

, and the signal line is also switched to the large character side by the changeover switch 17.
The output of the 2x32 matrix pattern is at frequency F. 32-decimal clock counter 18 synchronized with the clock of
When the output (passes through the 5AND circuit 20 and satisfies the conditions), the output voltage of the 32-step reference voltage generator 21 is specified, and a charging voltage is generated for the time of the frequency F. The ink is charged. In the case of large characters, printing quality can be ensured without thinning out.The above explanation uses a character pattern as an example of a 32 x 32 dot matrix, but in general, character patterns with a dot matrix of m rows and n columns Needless to say, it can also be applied.

Although the above description relates to a printing device using an IC jet printer, the present invention is not limited thereto and can be widely applied to display devices and other pattern generating devices.

As described above in detail, the present invention provides that when a digital signal is taken out from a storage device continuously for n blocks, with m dot signals in one block, the required pattern signal is divided into two parts within one block by a thinning command. When there is a pattern signal at the same position in one horizontal row of each block, that pattern signal is not thinned out so that the pattern signals of adjacent blocks in two vertical rows are alternated between the blocks. Since the signal of the required pattern is generated by converting it into It is possible to prevent overlapping of inks, prevent staining of the paper surface, and further speed up pattern generation.

Further, in the case of a large pattern, it is possible to generate the pattern without thinning out, so there are advantages such as good pattern quality can be ensured.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a character pattern diagram of an example of Mincho type kanji composed of a 32x32 dot matrix, and Fig. 2 shows a character pattern of an embodiment of the present invention, in which the pixels of the character pattern in Fig. 1 are thinned out. An example of the display of kanji composed of
, b are pattern diagrams and relationship diagrams of pixels of interest when comparing arbitrary dots with surrounding dots, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an apparatus for realizing the present invention. In the figure, 11 is a character pattern memo 18, 12 is a thinning circuit, 13 is a 32-bit shift register, 14 is a NAND circuit, 15 is a NOT circuit, 16, 20 is an AND circuit, 17,
26 is a changeover switch, 18 is a 32-decimal clock counter,
21 is a 32-step reference voltage generator.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A storage device that stores digital signals such as characters encoded in a dot matrix configuration with a pattern of m vertical lines and horizontal n lines, and from this storage device, n blocks of consecutive m dot signals are defined as one block. When the digital signal is taken out, the decimation command is used to decimate the required pattern signals so that two or more consecutive pattern signals do not occur in one block, and when there are pattern signals at the same position in a horizontal row in each block, the pattern is A pattern generating device comprising a thinning circuit that generates a signal of a desired pattern by converting pattern signals of blocks adjacent in two vertical columns so that they are alternated between blocks without thinning out signals.