JP2962564B2 - Printer print control method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Table of Contents] Overview Industrial application field Conventional technology Problems to be solved by the invention Means for solving the problem Actions Embodiment (1) Step 1 (2) Step 2 (3) Step 3 (4) Step 4 (5) Step 5 (6) Step 6 (7) Step 7 (8) Step 8 Effect of the Invention [Outline] A print control method of a printer used as an output device such as an information processing device, In particular, the present invention relates to a print control method for a printer that displays characters in a smooth manner when enlarging a print. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a smooth character even when the characters are magnified. In a printer that performs printing using a buffer, a vertical enlargement control unit that controls vertical enlargement of print data,
A horizontal enlargement control unit that controls horizontal enlargement, a print path character data storage unit that stores print data that has been enlarged vertically and horizontally, an original data check unit that confirms original print data before enlargement, and a print path character A dot correction unit that performs dot correction based on data of the data storage unit and the original data confirmation unit,
The character data is configured to be smooth.

[Industrial applications]

The present invention relates to a print control method for a printer used as an output device such as an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to a print control method for a printer that displays characters smoothly when printing is enlarged.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 34 is a block diagram illustrating a conventional printer. FIG. 34 shows an example of a serial printer. This printer has a main controller 1 for controlling internal processing operations, an interface unit 2 for interfacing with the outside, and character data storing character dot patterns. Storage unit 3
A horizontal enlargement control unit 4 for controlling horizontal enlargement, a vertical enlargement control unit 5 for controlling vertical enlargement, a one-character data storage unit 6 for temporarily storing print data for one character, and a space operation at the time of print processing , A line feed control unit 8 for controlling a line feed operation, a print control unit 9 for controlling a print processing operation, and a line buffer 10 for storing print data.
And a print head 11 for printing the print data stored in the line buffer 10 under the control of the print control unit 9.

For example, in the case of enlarging a character vertically and horizontally n times, conventionally, the data taken out of the character data storage unit 3 by the vertical enlargement control unit 5 is enlarged vertically for each column, and only the print data to be printed at present is stored in one character data. Write to part 6,
Thereafter, the horizontal enlargement control unit 4 writes the data in the line buffer 10 while enlarging the data horizontally for each column. However, according to this method, the dots are simply enlarged, and the characters are not smooth. Here, the character data storage unit 3 is usually a read-only memory (ROM). The one-character data storage unit 6 and the line buffer 10 have a readable / writable memory (RA
M) is used. A column is a unit of the width of a character. In the case of a 24-dot printer, one column is data of 24 dots × 1.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

As described above, the conventional method has a problem that when a character is enlarged, the character is not smooth.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a smooth character even when the character is enlarged.

[Means for solving the problem]

According to the present invention, there is provided a print control method for a serial printer that performs printing using print data stored in a line buffer, the printer comprising: a vertical enlargement control unit 5; a horizontal enlargement control unit 4; Unit 6, a print pass character data storage unit 21 for storing dot data after vertical and horizontal enlargement, an original data confirmation unit 22 for storing dots of original dot data that has not been enlarged, and a dot after enlargement. And a dot correction unit 24 for correcting
The process of vertically enlarging the character data in the character data storage unit 6 and writing it in the print pass character data storage unit 21 (S1). The horizontal enlargement control unit 4 enlarges the data in the print pass character data storage unit 21 horizontally and prints it. The process of writing to the pass character data storage unit 21 (S2), a counter for the character width is set (S3), and the vertical enlargement control unit 5 determines the dot position of the enlarged width of the character data in the one character data storage unit 6. The step of calculating (S4), the step of setting the starting dot in the dot counter (S5), and the original data checking unit 22 and the dot correcting unit 24 determine whether the dot indicated by the dot counter is printing or non-printing, and whether the dot is adjacent to the dot. A peripheral dot and its next adjacent peripheral dot (for example,
,,, And, and) correspond to whether the logical OR is printed or unprinted,
A printing control method for a printer, comprising a step (S6 to S10) of cutting or filling corners of the enlarged character data.

(Operation)

The printer of the present invention includes the above-described printing pass character data storage unit 21, the original data checking unit 22, and the smoothing control unit 20 including the dot correction unit 24. When performing smoothing, the vertical enlargement control unit 5 and the horizontal enlargement The data expanded vertically and horizontally by the control unit 4 is written into the print pass character data storage unit 21, and the original data check unit 22 checks each dot in the one-character data storage unit 6 and the surrounding dots, and checks the data. The dot correction unit 24 performs dot correction (deletion / addition) on the print pass character data storage unit 21 based on the. As a result, the data written to the line buffer 10 by the smoothing control unit 20 is smoothed, and printing in which the vertical and horizontal directions are smoothly enlarged becomes possible.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a serial printer that performs the printing control method of the printer according to the present invention. The printer includes a main controller 1 for controlling internal processing operations, an interface unit 2 for interfacing with the outside, a character data storage unit 3 for storing dot patterns of characters,
A horizontal enlargement control unit 4 for controlling horizontal enlargement, a vertical enlargement control unit 5 for controlling vertical enlargement, a one-character data storage unit 6 for temporarily storing print data for one character, and controlling a space operation at the time of print processing. Space control unit 7 for controlling line feed operation, line feed control unit 8 for controlling line feed operation, and print control unit 9 for controlling print processing operation
And a line buffer 10 in which print data is stored,
A print head 11 for printing print data stored in the line buffer 10 under the control of the print control unit 9 and a smoothing control unit 20 for performing smoothing are provided. The smoothing control unit 20 includes a print path character data storage unit 21 for storing dot data after vertical and horizontal enlargement, and an original data confirmation unit 22 for confirming dots of original dot data that have not been enlarged. And a dot correction unit 24 for correcting the enlarged dot.

For example, for a printer that performs printing at a pseudo double density (a printer that cannot print continuous dots) using a 24-dot serial printer, the smoothing control unit shown in FIGS.
The smoothing process performed by 20 will be described. However, FIGS. 13 to 23 show a part of 24 dots, 6 × 6.
FIG.

The smoothing control unit 20 vertically enlarges the character data in the one-character data storage unit 6 by the vertical enlargement control unit 5 and writes it in the print pass character data storage unit 21, and the horizontal enlargement control unit 4 stores the character data in the print pass character data storage unit 21. 14 is written in the same print pass character data storage unit 21 (FIG. 14), a counter for the character width is set, and the vertical expansion Print pass character data storage area from dot to dot
Calculate whether it was written to 21, and set the starting dot as a dot counter. The start dot and the end dot are obtained from the following equations (1-1) and (1-2).

When the vertical magnification is VMR (1 to n) and the path to be printed is VMPASS (0 to VMR-1), the following equation is derived.

Start dot = (24 × VMPASS−1) ÷ VMR (1-1) However, when the start dot becomes smaller than 0, it is set to 0 (rounded down to the decimal).

End dot = (24 × (VMPASS + 1) +1) ÷ VMR (1-2) However, if the end dot is larger than 23, it is set to 23 (rounded down to the nearest decimal).

After that, the original data confirmation unit 22 confirms whether the designated dot of the character data in the one-character data storage unit 6 is printing (1) or non-printing (0). This dot position is calculated by the following equation (2-2), and is a position indicated by x in FIG. Furthermore, the dots around the dot (up, down, left, right, that is, ~ ,,, in the left part of FIG. 3)
,,,, finally, ~ in the right part of FIG.
Here, the right is the logical sum of the left, the right is the left, the right is the left, the right is the left, the right is the left, and the right is the left. ) Is printed or not.

Here, assuming that the value of the dot counter is Y, the following equation is derived.

Byte position = (Y ÷ 8)% 3 (2-1) Dot position = 2 ^ ((23−Y)% 8) (2-2) Here, α% β indicates the remainder of α ÷ β. , Α ＾ β indicates α raised to the power of β.

Thereafter, if the designated dot confirmed by the original data confirmation unit 22 by the dot correction unit 24 is 1, the sum of the dots of,,, and confirmed by the original data confirmation unit 22 is 3 or more,
When both are 1 and both are 1, dot correction is not performed.

When correction is performed, the correction is performed according to the following steps 1 to 8.

(1) When all of the steps 1,... Are 0, the correction column counter is set to 0, and a value obtained by subtracting 1 from half the value (rounded off) of the smaller horizontal or vertical magnification is input to the correction dot counter.

Put 0 in the correction column dot counter, and calculate equation (3-1).
If the pass number calculated in step (3) is the same as the pass number to be printed now, the byte in the print path character data storage unit 21 at the position calculated in equation (4) is used to obtain the equation (3-3).
The dot at the dot position calculated in is deleted and the correction column dot counter is incremented by one until the value reaches the value of the correction dot counter. The correction column counter is advanced by two columns (2 × 3 bytes), and the correction dot counter is incremented. Is decremented by 1 and this operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0. (See FIG. 5 or FIG. 15) Equations (3-1), (3-2), (3-3), Equation (4)
Is obtained as follows, where I is the correction column dot counter value.

Pass number = (Y × VMR + I) ÷ 24 (3-1) Byte position = ((Y × VMR + I) ÷ 8)% 3 (3-2) Dot position = 2 （(((((23−Y) × VMR) + VMR-1-I)% 8) (3-3) Expression (4) indicates that the counter value for the character width is X, the horizontal enlargement ratio is HMR (1 to n), the correction column counter is J, Equation (3
When the byte position calculated in -2) is BP, the byte position = X × HMR × 3 + BP + J (4)

(2) When all of the steps 2,, are 0, the correction column counter is set to the value calculated by the equation (5), and the value obtained by subtracting 1 from half the value (rounded) of the smaller horizontal or vertical enlargement ratio is subtracted. Input to the correction dot counter.

Put 0 in the correction column dot counter, and calculate equation (3-1).
If the pass number calculated in step (3) is the same as the pass number to be printed now, the byte in the print path character data storage unit 21 at the position calculated in equation (4) is used to obtain the equation (3-3).
The dot at the dot position calculated in is deleted, the correction column dot counter is incremented by one, and the correction column counter is repeatedly returned by two columns (2 × 3 bytes) until the value reaches the value of the correction dot counter. This operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0 after subtracting 1 (6th
(See Figure or Figure 16). Equation (5) above is derived as follows.

Correction column counter value = (HMR × 2-2) × 3 (5) (3) When steps 3 and are all 0, the correction column counter is set to the value calculated by equation (5) and the horizontal or vertical enlargement ratio is set. The value obtained by subtracting 1 from half the value (rounded off) of the smaller magnification is input to the correction dot counter.

The value calculated by equation (6) is inserted into the correction column dot counter, and if the pass number calculated by equation (3-1) is the same as the pass number currently being printed, the print path character data storage unit 21 The dot at the dot position calculated by the equation (3-3) is deleted from the byte at the position calculated by the equation (4), added to the correction column dot counter by one, and repeated until the value becomes the value of the vertical enlargement, Return the correction column counter for 2 columns (2 × 3 bytes) and set the correction dot counter to 1
This operation is repeated until the counter becomes 0 (see FIG. 7 or FIG. 17). The above equation (6) is derived as follows when the correction dot counter value is VMRE.

Correction column dot counter value = VMR−1−VMRE + 1 (6) (4) When all of the steps 4 and 4 are 0, the correction column counter is set to 0, and the value of half the magnification of the smaller horizontal or vertical magnification ( A value obtained by subtracting 1 from (rounded) is input to the correction dot counter.

The value calculated by equation (6) is inserted into the correction column dot counter, and if the pass number calculated by equation (3-1) is the same as the pass number currently being printed, the print path character data storage unit 21 The dot at the dot position calculated by the equation (3-3) is deleted from the byte at the value calculated by the equation (4), added by one to the correction column dot counter, and repeated until the value becomes the value of the vertical expansion. The correction column counter is advanced by two columns (2 × 3 bytes), the correction dot counter is decremented by 1, and this operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0 (see FIG. 8 or 18).

If the designated dot confirmed by the original data confirmation unit 22 by the dot correction unit 24 is 0, the designated dot is confirmed by the original data confirmation unit 22.
When printing only one of the dots, dot correction is not performed.

(5) When all of the steps 5 and 1 are 1, the correction column counter is set to 0,
The half value (rounded) of the smaller horizontal or vertical magnification is input to the correction dot counter.

Put 0 in the correction column dot counter, and calculate equation (3-1).
If the pass number calculated in step (3) is the same as the pass number to be printed now, the byte in the print path character data storage unit 21 at the position calculated in equation (4) is used to obtain the equation (3-3).
The dot at the dot position calculated in is added and the correction column dot counter is incremented by one until the value reaches the value of the correction column counter, and the correction column counter is advanced by two columns (2 × 3 bytes), and the correction dot counter Is subtracted by 1, and this operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0 (the ninth
(See Figure or Figure 19).

(6) When all of steps 6 and 1 are 1, the correction column counter is set to the value calculated by the equation (5), and the half value (rounded) of the smaller horizontal or vertical magnification is set as the correction dot counter. input.

Put 0 in the correction column dot counter, and calculate equation (3-1).
If the pass number calculated in step (3) is the same as the pass number to be printed now, the byte in the print path character data storage unit 21 at the position calculated in equation (4) is used to obtain the equation (3-3).
The dot at the dot position calculated in is added to the correction column dot counter, and the process is repeated until the value reaches the value of the correction column counter, and the correction column counter is returned by 2 columns (2 × 3 bytes). Is subtracted by 1 and this operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0 (tenth
(See Figure or Figure 20).

(7) When all of the steps 7 and 7 are 1, the correction column counter is set to the value calculated by equation (5), and the half value (rounded) of the smaller horizontal or vertical magnification is rounded to the correction dot counter. input.

The value calculated by equation (6) is inserted into the correction column dot counter, and if the pass number calculated by equation (3-1) is the same as the pass number currently being printed, the print path character data storage unit 21 A dot at the dot position calculated by equation (3-3) is added from the byte at the position calculated by equation (4), added to the correction column dot counter by one, and repeated until the value becomes the value of the correction column counter. Then, the correction column counter is returned by 2 columns (2 × 3 bytes), the correction dot counter is decremented by 1, and this operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0 (see FIG. 11 or FIG. 21).

(8) When all of the steps 8 and 9 are 1, the correction column counter is set to 0 and a half value (rounded off) of the smaller horizontal or vertical magnification is input to the correction dot counter.

The value calculated by equation (6) is inserted into the correction column dot counter, and if the pass number calculated by equation (3-1) is the same as the pass number currently being printed, the print path character data storage unit 21 A dot at the dot position calculated by equation (3-3) is added from the byte at the position calculated by equation (4), added to the correction column dot counter by one, and repeated until the value becomes the value of the correction column counter. Then, the correction column counter is advanced by two columns (2 × 3 bytes), the correction dot counter is decremented by 1, and this operation is repeated until this counter becomes 0 (see FIG. 12 or FIG. 22).

After that, the above operation is repeated by adding one dot to the dot counter (1), and the above operation is repeated for all columns by the column counter, thereby completing the smoothing process. Here, one byte is 8 bits.

FIG. 2 shows each process for smoothing the above-described enlarged printing.
It is summarized as one flow chart.

First, in step S1, the character data in the one-character data storage unit 6 is vertically expanded by the vertical expansion control unit 5 and written into the print pass character data storage unit 21. In process S2, the horizontal enlargement control unit 4
As a result, the data in the print path character data storage unit 21 is expanded horizontally and written in the same print path character data storage unit 21. In step S3, a counter for the character width is set. In step S4, the vertical enlargement control unit 5 calculates which vertical dots of the character data in the one-character data storage unit 6 and how many vertical dots are written in the print pass character data storage unit 21.

In step S5, the start dot calculated by equation (1-1) is set in the dot counter. In step S6, the dot indicated by the dot counter is set to 1 (printing) or 0 (no printing).

In step S7, dots around the dot indicated by the dot counter are checked. In step S8, depending on whether the dot is 1 or 0, the process is divided into a step S9 for cutting corners of character data enlarged according to the situation of peripheral dots or a step S10 for filling corners. Perform processing. These operations are performed by advancing the dot counter one dot at a time (S11, S1
2) When the dot counter reaches the end dot, the column counter is advanced by one column, and when the dot counter reaches the end column, the process ends (S13, S14).

The transition of the data after the end of step 8 from the original data in FIG. 13 to FIG. 23 is described for a part of the 24-dot printer for simplicity, and those deleted in that step are added with white stars and added. Things are shown with black stars,
FIGS. 24 to 33 show the manner in which the original data, only the enlargement, and the characters after 1 to 8 steps are changed in the processing when the enlargement is quadrupled in the 24-dot printer. In the figure, execution of steps 1 to 8 is 1
Since it is performed for each column, it does not happen that the entire character is executed only in step 1.

〔The invention's effect〕

ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, even if it enlarges a character, the printing of a smooth character can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a printer that performs a printing control method according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a processing process for performing the method of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 illustrates a designated dot and its surrounding dots. FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the dots indicated by the dot counter and the surrounding dots; FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the case where the dot indicated by the dot counter is 1 after step 1 processing; FIG. FIG. 7 shows a state after the processing of step 3 similar to FIG. 5, FIG. 7 shows a state after the processing of step 4 similar to FIG. 5, and FIG. 9 shows a state after the processing of step 4 similar to FIG. FIG. 10 shows the state after the processing of step 5 when the dot counter is 0, FIG. 10 shows the state after the processing of step 6 similar to FIG. 9, and FIG. 11 shows the state after the processing of step 7 similar to FIG. FIG. 12 is a view showing the same state after step 8 as in FIG. 9, and FIG. FIG. 14 is a partial view showing data after 6-fold magnification, FIG. 15 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 1, and FIG. 16 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 2. FIG. 17 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 3, FIG. 18 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 4, and FIG. 19 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 5. 20, FIG. 20 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 6, FIG. 21 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 7, FIG. 22 is a partial view showing data corrected in step 8, FIG. FIG. 23 is a partial view showing data after smoothing is completed, FIG. 24 is a view showing data before enlargement as an example, FIG. 25 is a view showing the data of FIG. 24 enlarged four times vertically and horizontally, FIG. 26 Uses the data in Figure 25 as a step 1 FIG. 27 is a view of the data of FIG. 26 processed in step 2, FIG. 28 is a view of the data of FIG. 27 processed in step 3, and FIG. 29 is a view of the data of FIG. 28 processed in step 4. FIG. 30, FIG. 30 shows the data of FIG. 29 processed in step 5, FIG. 31 shows the data of FIG. 30 processed in step 6, FIG. 32 shows the data of FIG. 31 processed in step 7, FIG. 33 is a diagram obtained by processing the data of FIG. 32 in step 8, and FIG. 34 is a block diagram of a printer for performing the conventional method. In the figure, 1... Main control device, 2... Interface unit, 3... Character data storage unit, 4... Horizontal enlargement control unit, 5... Vertical enlargement control unit, 6. ... space control unit, 8 ... line feed control unit, 9 ... print control unit, 10 ... line buffer, 11 ... print head, 20 ... smoothing control unit, 21 ... print pass character data storage unit, 22: Original data confirmation unit, 24: Dot correction unit.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-62-63988 (JP, A) JP-A-63-129397 (JP, A) JP-A-2-60764 (JP, A) JP-A 63-63964 146096 (JP, A) JP 60-49314 (JP, B2)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print control method for a serial printer which performs printing using print data stored in a line buffer, the printer comprising: a vertical enlargement control unit (5); a horizontal enlargement control unit (4); One character data storage unit (6), print pass character data storage unit (21) for storing dot data after vertical and horizontal enlargement, and original data confirmation for storing dots of original dot data that has not been enlarged Unit (22) and a dot correction unit (24) for correcting the enlarged dots. The character data in the one-character data storage unit (6) is enlarged vertically by the vertical enlargement control unit (5). Storage unit (2
Step (S1) of writing in (1), Step of horizontally enlarging the data in the print pass character data storage unit (21) by the horizontal enlargement control unit (4), and writing in the print pass character data storage unit (21) (S2) Setting a counter for the character width (S3), and calculating the dot position of the enlarged width of the character data in the one character data storage unit (6) from the vertical enlargement control unit (5) (S4); The process of setting the dots in the dot counter (S5), and the original data confirmation unit (22) and the dot correction unit (24)
Whether the dot indicated by the dot counter is printing or non-printing, and the adjacent dot adjacent to the dot and the next adjacent dot (and,, and, and)
Corresponding to whether the logical OR of each of the characters is printed or not, in which the corners of the enlarged character data are cut or filled (S6 ~
S10) A print control method for a printer, comprising: