IES70906B2 - Label printing system - Google Patents

Abstract

In a system for printing labels 10 on which the labels are detachably mounted along a continuous length of backing sheet 12 which is fed through a printer 14 for horizontal line by line printing of successive labels, the printer is halted after the printing of each label with the print head 16 positioned at the first line to be printed of the next label. Each label has a pre-printed area 20 adjacent the bottom edge of the label and the labels are fed through the printer bottom edge first and are printed upwardly line by line starting adjacent the pre-printed area. By this means, upon halting the printer the top edge of the printed label is clear of the printer such that it can be removed from the backing sheet without adjustment of the backing sheet position.

Description

LABEL PRINTING SYSTEM This invention relates to a system for printing labels.

A label printing system is known, Fig. 1, in which the labels 10 are detachably mounted along a continuous length of backing paper 12, usually in the form of a roll or fanfold, which is fed through the printer 14 for horizontal line by line printing of successive labels.

It will be understood that Fig. 1 is a schematic drawing which shows only those components necessary for understanding the background to the present invention.

In the present case the printer is assumed to be a matrix printer having a print head 16 which scans left to right (as seen in Fig. 1) along each line to be printed, and the backing paper 12 is sprocket driven for which purpose sprocket feed holes 18 are punched along each side. Such printers are well known, for example an EPSON FX-85 or EPSON LQ-860 or EPSON-compatible printer.

In such a system, it is often desired to print the labels individually (one at a time) rather than in batches, especially where the information to be printed may differ from label to label. In such a case, starting with the print head 16 at a datum position near the top edge of the label, i.e. at the start of the first line of printing as shown for the label 10b in Fig. 1, each line of printing on the label is printed in conventional manner by horizontal left to right scanning of the print head 16 over the label. During such printing the backing paper 12 is advanced by the pitch of one line after each line has been printed, and finally after the last line has been printed the backing paper is advanced to and halted at the datum position for the next label, in readiness for printing that next S70t0e - 2 label. •3 For example, as shown in Fig. 1, the label 10a has already been printed with, in this case, three lines of printing (labelled THIS IS LINE 1, THIS IS LINE 2 and THIS IS LINE 3 and printed in that order), and the next label 10b is positioned at the datum position under the print head 16 in readiness for printing. Each label 10 also has a pre-printed area 20 (AREA A: SHOP NAME) adjacent the bottom edge 22 of the label, the significance of which will be described later.

Label printing systems of the type described with reference to Fig. 1 are commonly used in pharmacies. A major part of the function of a pharmacy involves the repackaging and re-labelling of drugs for use by the patient, and an integral part of this is the production of individual labels for each medication dispensed, which contains details such as the patient's name, drug given, dosage, quantity etc.

From a safety point of view, details of a drug must be entered and the resulting label placed on a container before the next drug is entered up. To do this the label must be ejected from the printer with enough clearance to peel it off the backing paper. However, as seen in Fig. 1, when a label 10 has been printed and the backing sheet 12 advanced to the datum position for the next label, the bottom edge of the printed label (the label 10a in Fig. 1) is not clear of the printer. For example, in a matrix printer it would be the bail bar 24 of the printer which provides the obstruction, but in other types of printers other components at the label exit could cause the obstruction.

Usually, therefore, the only way to remove the printed label is to wind the backing paper 12 forward, peel off the label, and wind the paper back to the datum position. This can be done manually but it can also be done automatically by the system. For example, after a label is finished printing the software can send a command (ESC+J) to do a forward feed so that the printed label clears the printer, and then prior to printing the next label a reverse feed command (ESC+j) can be issued to return the label to the datum position. However, whether it is done manually or automatically this constant winding and rewinding causes a problem.

Due to the method by which rolls or fanfolds of labels are manufactured, small amounts of adhesive are present on the backing paper around each label, and the constant backward and forward movement of the paper causes minute traces of the adhesive to build up inside the printer. This gums up the printer over time and causes new labels to peel off under the platen, requiring a call to the maintainer of the printer.

A solution adopted by many of the suppliers of dedicated labelling equipment is to design a specialised printer that has the print head as close as possible to where the label will be ejected. Thus, as soon as the label is positioned at the top of one label, the label before it can be peeled off. However, these dedicated printers are costly and they tend to use a thermal print mechanism. The labels are therefore expensive and prone to fading if left in sunlight. This would be unsuitable for medication labels, as often patients will keep drugs for years and it could be potentially fatal if the label became illegible.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a solution to the above problem which can be implemented at low cost and, if desired, using existing printers.

According to the present invention there is provided a system for printing labels in which the labels are detachably mounted along a continuous length of backing sheet which is fed through a printer for horizontal line by line printing of successive labels, the printer being halted after the printing of each label with the print head positioned at the first line to be printed of the next label, wherein each label has a pre-printed area adjacent the bottom edge of the label and the labels are fed through the printer bottom edge first and are printed upwardly line by line starting adjacent the pre-printed area, whereby upon halting the printer the top edge of the printed label is clear of the printer such that it can be removed from the backing sheet without adjustment of the backing sheet position.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure l, already described, illustrates the conventional label printing system.

Figure 2 is a diagram similar to Fig. 1 illustrating the operation of a label printing system according to the embodiment, Figure 3 shows a device for rewinding rolls of labels on backing paper, and Figures 4a and 4b illustrate, respectively, a character from a conventional bit-mapped font and from a bit-mapped font in which each character is rotated about both horizontal and vertical axes.

As described with reference to Fig. 1, the label 10 must clear the ball bar 24 in order for it to be peeled off. In the conventional system of Fig. 1 the printed label 10a remains obscured by the bail bar 24 when the next label 10b is in the datum position and therefore cannot be removed without first winding it forward. In Fig. 2, however, which illustrates the embodiment of the invention when the label 10b is in the datum position, the top edge 26 of the label 10a has cleared the bail bar 24 and can be easily removed without further adjustment of the backing paper 12.

This has been accomplished by feeding the labels upside down through the printer, i.e. bottom edge 22 first, and printing each label upwardly line by line starting adjacent the pre-printed area 20 marked AREA A: SHOP NAME. In other words, THIS IS LINE 3 is printed first, followed by THIS IS LINE 2 and finally by THIS IS LINE 1, after which the backing paper 12 is advanced to the datum position for the next label. This works because the area 20 on the labels contains the pre-printed name of the pharmacy and therefore doesn't have to be printed on. The height of this area is the additional height that the printed label 10a can be advanced by, and it is enough to clear the label 10a of the bail bar 24.

In order to implement this technique two modifications to the standard label printing system of Fig. 1 are necessary. First it is necessary to manufacture the backing paper 12 so that the labels 10 come off the roll or fanfold upside down as compared to their normal orientation, and second it is necessary to print the labels from the bottom up.

The first modification is readily accomplished. All that is required is that the image (photograph) containing the logo or shop name be supplied to the litho printer upside down. An alternative is to supply a simple mechanism for the pharmacist to re-roll the labels themselves. This would mean that existing labels could be used. A suitable mechanism is shown in Fig. 3 where the standard roll of labels would be placed on the supply roller 28 and wound onto the take up roller 30.

The second modification can also be made. It will be observed that not only have the lines of printing THIS IS LINE 1, etc., have to be printed in reverse order, but also each individual line of printing has to be printed from right to left as referred to the normal viewing orientation of the label, and upside down as referred to the normal orientation of characters printed by the print head 16. This necessitates (1) defining a character font in which the printable characters are rotated about both horizontal and vertical axes, and (2) printing the characters in reverse order.

As to (1), almost all printers, from dot matrix through to laser printers, support a downloadable font or character set. The first thing that needs to be done is therefore to generate a character set for the printer in which every printable character is rotated about the horizontal and vertical axes.

Basically there are two types of character definition systems in common use: bit-mapped fonts and stroked or vector fonts. The same principles apply so we will just look at bit mapped fonts for simplicity. With nine pin printers the characters are 9 dots high whereas with 24 bit printers the characters are 24 dots high. The greater number of dots provides a much better defined image, but in terms of the process of reversing the characters, the same principle applies irrespective of the number of pins in the print head. The example in Fig. 4a shows the letter K on a bitmap of 13 pixels in the y direction and 6 pixels in the x direction. To define a character a number is generated for each vertical column starting at xO through to x5. Each, row starting from yO moving to yl2 is assigned a number, e.g., if there was to be a dot in yO then the value 1 is used, in yl the value 2, in y2 the value 4, and so on. All the values are added up and this becomes the value for the column xO. A similar exercise is done for all columns of the bitmap. This process is then completed for each character in the downloadable font.

The actual process is different depending on the type of printer concerned. Most printers, however, are Epson compatible and therefore there is a large amount of compatibility. Most nine pin printers will emulate an Epson FX-85 printer, where the characters are 8 pixels high and 11 pixels wide, i.e. ranging from x0,y0 to xl0,y7. Similarly, most 24 pin printers are Epson LQ-860 compatible, where the characters are 24 pixels high and 36 pixels wide, i.e. ranging from x0,y0 to x23,y35.

Irrespective of the actual printer involved the process is essentially the same: a. Design the character set on paper using a grid similar to Fig. 4. Follow the instructions supplied by the printer manufacturer to generate a list of values for the particular character. However, reverse the order of the x and y axes, e.g., in the present example, where the manufacturer's manual refers to column xO one would work with column x5; where they refer to yl2, one would work with yO and so on. This will effectively produce a reverse image as in Fig. 4b. b. Send a command to the printer to copy the internal ROM font to the downloadable font. For the Epson LQ-860 printer this is ESC: 000. This is to establish the non-printable characters for the font; if these were sent after the newly defined characters the latter would be overwritten. c. Send the command to the printer to download the newly defined characters. In Epson LQ-860 this is ESC & 0 StartCharacterCode EndCharacterCode followed by the bitmap generated in (a) above.

As to (2) , the characters that make up the label must be printed in reverse. The last line of the label must be printed first and the first last. Similarly, on each row, the last character must be printed first and the first last. The simplest way of doing this is to build up a buffer containing the label data, transpose it and then send it to the printer. This can be done in a number of ways.

In a typical label printing system an application sends the characters it wants to print to the operating system. The operating system in turn sends the characters to the printer port. This in turn sends the characters via a cable to the printer. The firmware within the printer changes takes these codes and uses them to fire the correct pins to produce the required character on paper. The label data can be intercepted at a number of points along this chain for transposition. 1. The application could be modified so that instead of printing a label immediately, the characters are built up until the user has finished entering the label data.

Then all the characters are sent to the printer starting at the end of the buffer, working backwards. All lines would have to be padded to the same width, so that the upside down left hand margin was aligned. This is the simplest way of implementing the transposition, although this can only be done with access to the source code for the application. 2. Alternatively the operating system can build a buffer and send it in reverse order as described above. Under Windows this would involve supplying a new printer device driver. Under DOS it would involve writing a TSR to capture all characters sent to the printer. At the end of each label the transposition would occur and the characters would be sent on to the printer.

As described with reference to Fig. 1, when each label is finished printing in the conventional system the software sends a command to do a forward feed (ESC+J), and prior to printing the next label a reverse feed command is issued (ESC+j). By monitoring the printer port for these characters the start and end of a label can be clearly defined, and instead of using these commands to forward and reverse feed the label they can be used to invoke the transposition. By only switching to the downloadable font when a transposition was done, and switching back afterwards, the system would become transparent, ignoring all characters except those known to be labels. 3. Another possibility is to build a hardware device that intercepts characters travelling down the printer . cable. Using the ESC+J and ESC+j sequences described above, characters known to be part of a label would be stored in a temporary buffer, transposed and then sent to the printer. Again this would be totally transparent, ignoring reports, WP documents etc., and only reversing labels. 4. Finally, with the cooperation of a printer manufacturer it would be possible to update the firmware for a particular printer to either monitor the ESC+J and ESC+j combination or to include an additional command to print labels backwards. The advantage of this method is that the printer manufacturer will have access to the internal character set and therefore the firmware itself could reverse the character set, obviating the need to design a downloadable character set.

Claims (4)

1. A system for printing labels in which the labels are detachably mounted along a continuous length of backing sheet which is fed through a printer for horizontal line by line printing of successive labels, the printer being halted after the printing of each label with the print head positioned at the first line to be printed of the next label, wherein each label has a pre-printed area adjacent the bottom edge of the label and the labels are fed through the printer bottom edge first and are printed upwardly line by line starting adjacent the pre-printed area, whereby upon halting the printer the top edge of the printed label is clear of the printer such that it can be removed from the backing sheet without adjustment of the backing sheet position.

2. A label printing system as claimed in claim 1, wherein for printing the labels the printer uses a font in which each character is rotated about both horizontal and vertical axes.

3. A label printing system as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the characters to be printed on each label are buffered and printed in reverse order from the buffer.

4. A label printing system substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.