JPS62104788A - Color ink ribbon for impact printer and color printing system of impact printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the turbidity of a printed color character, by imparting a region having a plurality of color inks applied thereto in a strip form in the longitudinal direction thereof and a strip like region not coated with ink to a color ink ribbon. CONSTITUTION:Blue ink is applied to the region B of an ink ribbon 1 and red ink to the region R thereof and yellow ink to the region Y thereof but no ink is applied to a region N. When the color of ink is altered, a ribbon cartridge 7 is moved to select the region N coated with no ink and blank printing is applied to said region N. By this method, the ink adhered to the leading end of a printing pin is transferred to the region N of the ink ribbon. As mentioned above, because the ink adhered to the leading end of the printing pin is removed when a color is altered, turbidity caused by the mixing of different color inks is not generated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to color printing by an impact printer such as a dot matrix printer, and particularly to a color ink ribbon and a color printing method therefor.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems] Conventionally, when printing in color using a dot matrix printer, etc., an ink ribbon is used to apply ink in the three primary colors of blue, red, and yellow in a band shape. There is. Color printing is performed on a form or the like by impacting the print pin of the print head with the corresponding colored ink area of the ink ribbon.

However, blue, red, and yellow inks have different color densities (in particular, blue and red are darker than yellow), so if, for example, you print blue and then yellow, the yellow characters will become muddy. This is because blue ink adheres to the tip of the printing pin of the print head when printing in blue, and transfers to the ribbon when printing in yellow. For this reason,
When color printing is performed using conventional techniques, there is a drawback that the colors become unclear.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art described above, and provides a color ink ribbon and a color printing method that do not muddy the color of characters printed in color by an impact printer. The purpose is to

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a color ink ribbon for impact printers, which has a region where ink of a plurality of colors is applied in a strip shape in the longitudinal direction of the ribbon, and a strip region where no ink is applied. It is. Further, in the present invention, the color ink ribbon has a region in which multiple colors of ink are applied in a strip shape in the longitudinal direction and a strip region in which no ink is applied, and the impact of the printing pin on the color ink ribbon is reduced by the ink of one color. When switching from an area coated with ink to an area coated with another color ink, an impact is performed on the area coated with the other color ink after impacting the area where no ink is coated. This provides a color printing method for impact printers.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a portion of an example of a color ink ribbon according to the present invention. Blue ink is applied to area B of the ink ribbon 1, red ink is applied to area R, and yellow ink is applied to area Y, but no ink is applied to area N. Note that the colors of ink are not limited to the three primary colors of blue, red, and yellow mentioned above; , 71. ．． 8-A7 Ewa.

,. , Eh, 3-Yo, it could be 82 colors or 4 colors. The material of the ink ribbon 1 is, for example, a nylon ribbon.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a dot matrix printer equipped with the ink ribbon of FIG. 1. The carriage 3 provided in the printer 2 drives a rad to print (not shown) 1FlJ71
This is for printing on the paper 5 on the platen 4 by the impact action of the printing pin of the print head.

Figure 3 shows detailed L near the carriage shown in Figure 2.
FIG. 3 is a side view showing the configuration. Paper 51 is placed on platen 4.
is wound, and a print head 6 is disposed on the front surface of the ink ribbon 1 to face it with the ink ribbon 1 interposed therebetween.

The ink ribbon 1 is housed in a ribbon cartridge 7, and the ink ribbon 1 is moved up and down by a gear (or link mechanism 1) 9 that is rotated (or driven) by a motor (or solenoid) 8. The above print head 6, ribbon cartridge 7, etc. are mounted on the carriage shift 10.
It is then guided by the ridge base 11 and moved.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the control system of the dot matrix printer. This control system is a C
PtJ21 and ROM22 that stores control programs, etc.
and a RAM 23 which is a memory area necessary for processing, and these are connected to each other via a system bus 24. The system bus 24 also includes a print head drive circuit 25, a motor drive circuit 26, and an interface 27.
is connected. The print head drive circuit 25 drives the print head 6, thereby performing an impact printer on paper. The motor drive circuit 26 drives a ribbon motor M1 for moving the ink ribbon, a paper feed motor M2 for feeding paper, and a carriage motor M3 for moving the carriage. The interface 27 is for exchanging data with an external device such as a host machine.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be explained according to the flowchart of FIG. First, when the operation starts, the color of the ink ribbon is selected by a signal from an external device such as a host machine (101). The first color of this ink ribbon is
As shown in the figure, there are three colors, blue (B), red (R) and yellow (Y), and this selection is made by moving the ribbon cartridge 7 in FIG. 3 by the ribbon motor M1 shown in FIG. 4.

Once the color is selected, printing is then done on the paper (10
2>. That is, the print head drive circuit 25 shown in FIG.
The print head 6 is driven by this, and the tip of the print pin (not shown) is aligned with the ink ribbon 1, as shown in FIG.
Printing is performed by impacting the platen 4 via the paper 5. Therefore, the colored ink of the ribbon that has made an impact adheres to the tip of the printing pin.

Next, if printing has not finished, it is determined whether a color change has been specified by the host machine, etc. (104)
. and if no change is specified, step 10
Return to step 2 and continue the same operation as above. When changing the ink color is specified, move the ribbon cartridge and select area N where no ink is applied (105).
, blank printing is performed here (105). In other words, territory
Invert the printing pin from 1 to 1 with respect to N, thereby transferring the ink attached to the tip of the printing pin to area
It! Move to N. After that, return to step 101 again,
Similar operations are repeated until printing is completed in step 103.

As mentioned above, when the color is changed, the ink attached to the tip of the printing pin is removed by blank printing, so
There is no chance of inks of different colors mixing and becoming cloudy.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and various modifications are possible. For example, the present invention is applicable not only to dot matrix type impact printers but also to other types of impact printers. Further, in the flowchart of FIG. 5, one blank printing may be performed immediately after starting the operation, and then step 101 may be executed.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, when the color of the ink to be printed changes, blank printing is performed on the area where no ink is applied, so that the color ink of characters printed in color does not become cloudy. Therefore, clear color printing can be performed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial plan view of an example of an ink ribbon according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an example of a wire dot printer, and FIG.
4 is a block diagram of the control system of the wire dot printer according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the above embodiment. 1... Ink ribbon, 3... Carriage, 4...
Platen, 5...Paper, 6...Print head, 7...
・Ribbon cartridge, 11... Carriage base,
B... Blue area, R... Red area, Y... Yellow area, N... Area where no ink is applied. Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A color ink ribbon used for color printing by an impact printer, which has regions where inks of multiple colors are applied in strips in the longitudinal direction of the ribbon, and strips where no ink is applied. Color ink ribbon for impact printers. 2. In the color printing method of an impact printer, which prints in color by impacting the color ink ribbon with the print pin of the print head, the color ink ribbon has areas in which multiple colors of ink are applied in strips in the longitudinal direction of the ribbon. , and a band-shaped area on which no ink is applied, and when the impact of the printing pin on the color ink ribbon changes from an area applied with one color ink to an area applied with another color ink, A color printing method for an impact printer, characterized in that the impact is performed on the area to which the ink of another color is applied after the impact is made to the area to which the ink is not applied.