JP3070122B2 - Printing control device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a print control apparatus for controlling a print head of an image forming apparatus used as an output means of an information processing apparatus, and more particularly to speeding up and lowering the printing of a form.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a form has been created by an information processing apparatus, and the form has been formed by an image forming apparatus such as a line printer, that is, printed out. In such form printing, it is necessary to print a large number of characters in a predetermined printing area.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 6A, in order to print a large number of characters each having a predetermined image area 102 in a predetermined print area 100, some of the characters are overlapped. That is, printing is performed so that an image overlapping area (shaded area in the figure) 104 is generated.

Here, the characters printed on the form are usually numbers, so it is rare to use the entire image region 102 of one character. Is not a problem.

[0005]

When an image is formed so as to generate such an image overlap area 104, the conventional image forming apparatus performs printing in accordance with the order of receiving print data from the information processing apparatus. (In the example of FIG. 6A, the character is usually from the leftmost character to the rightmost character). According to the printing in accordance with the reception order, the behavior of the print head for each character has a very delicate stroke as shown in FIG.

The subtle stroke is generated in the overlapping area 104 of the image area 102 of each character, but causes the following problem. That is, (1) the vibration generated by the image forming apparatus is significantly increased. (2) Because backlash occurs for each character,
The coordinate position accuracy of each character decreases. (3) Since the drive amount of the print head required for printing one character string is large, the stress of the drive system increases. (4) The time required to print one character string is enormous.

[0007] Such a cause is that printing is performed in accordance with the reception order of print data from the information processing apparatus.

In this case, if the printing can be performed so as to minimize the number of occurrences of the backlash without depending on the receiving order of the printing data from the information processing apparatus, the vibration can be reduced and the driving system can be reduced. It is clear that high-speed and high-accuracy printing can be performed without giving much stress to the image.

An object of the present invention is to enable printing to minimize the number of occurrences of backlash.

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided a data storage means for storing a plurality of print target data whose output positions are designated, and a plurality of print target data stored in the storage means, wherein The detecting means for detecting whether or not there is print target data that can be output to the print output area, and when the detecting means determines that there is print target data that can be output to the overlapped print output area, Grouping means for grouping the print target data into a plurality of groups by regarding print target data whose output areas do not overlap with each other as one group, and print target data grouped by the grouping means. And print control means for printing and outputting independently for each group unit divided into the respective groups.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE FUNCTIONAL BLOCK DIAGRAM FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the present invention, in which a storage means 1 for storing print data, an overlap between adjacent print data is detected, and print data which does not overlap each other are grouped as one group. It comprises a grouping means 2 for grouping and a printing means 3 for printing the grouped print data.

[0012]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 2 shows a print control device 10 according to the embodiment.
In the figure, reference numeral 12 denotes an interface controller (IFCONT) for receiving print target data (characters, symbols, and other image data) transmitted from an information processing apparatus located outside. It is a receiving device. Reference numeral 14 denotes a reception data storage device including a RAM that stores information received by the reception device 12. 16
Is a control device composed of a CPU that controls the entire system. Reference numeral 18 denotes a print head drive device that drives and controls the print head 20.

Next, the printing control device 1 having the above-described configuration will be described.
The operation at 0 will be described. First, print data transmitted from an external device is stored in the reception data storage device 14 via the reception device 12. The receiving device 12 detects the transport instruction command in the input print data, stops the receiving process at the same time, and reports to the control device 16 that the reception of one transport unit has been completed.

The control device 16 executes a process as shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, after receiving the report from the receiving device 12, the coordinate information and the image width information of each character data in the print information stored in the received data storage device 14 are collected (step S1).

[0015] That is, in FIG. 4 (A) shows the print target data to be used in the present embodiment, as shown in the figure, the print target data is composed of six letters 22 _{1-22 6,} adjacent It is assumed that the character and the image area partially overlap. Regarding such print data, the control device 16
Collects information as shown in FIG. 4B from the reception data storage device 14.

Next, the control device 16 determines whether or not there is character duplication based on the information on each character generated in the above processing (step S2). That is, it is determined from the information on the x coordinate and the image width whether adjacent characters overlap.

If there is an overlap, grouping into a plurality of groups is performed based on the information on each character generated in the above processing. This grouping is performed in order from the top coordinate order, and a group of character data whose image areas do not overlap each other constitutes one group.

That is, first, as an initial setting, the control device 16
A group number “0” is set in a group register (not shown) configured inside (step S3). Next, the group number in the group register is incremented by "+1" (step S4), and the data (x coordinate and image width) of the character having the next coordinate order is read (step S5). Then, based on the read data, it is determined whether or not there is a character overlap (step S6). If there is a character overlap, the process returns to step S4. That is, In this example, first, because of the overlap and the character 22 _second coordinate rank "1" character 22 ₁ and the coordinate rank "2", the flow returns to step S4.

Then, similarly to the above, the group number in the group register is incremented by "1" (step S4), and the data of the character having the next coordinate order is read (step S4).
5) Based on the read data, it is determined whether or not characters are duplicated (step S6). This time, there is no overlap in the characters 22 ₁ and the character 22 ₃ of coordinate rank "3" of the coordinate rank "1", the flow proceeds to the next step S7.

In step S7, character data is grouped at intervals of group numbers in the group register. That is, in this example, the group number is "2", so that character data is grouped at intervals of two characters.

Thus, in this embodiment, the coordinate orders "1", "3", "5" and the coordinate orders "2", "4",
The character data “6” is grouped as constituting a group.

Next, the control unit 16 issues an instruction to the print head drive unit 18 for each of the groups separated by the above processing, and causes the print head drive unit 18 to perform the printing scan for each group. That is, the process of printing the grouped character data on a group basis (step S8) is repeated until all groups are printed (step S9).

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the state of such print scanning in each group unit. As shown in the figure, in the first scanning printing, the character data of the coordinate order “1”, “3”, “5” included in the first group is printed, and the second scanning is performed.
In scanning printing, character data of the coordinate order "2", "4", "6" included in the next group is printed.

By these processes, print data as shown in FIG. 4A is formed by two printing scans. That is, printing can be performed by one backlash.

If it is determined in step S2 that there is no character duplication, a normal printing operation is performed (step S10).

In the above embodiment, the case where the overlap occurs only between the adjacent characters has been described. However, the present invention relates to the case where the next character and the next character are added between the three adjacent characters, that is, in the image area of the first character. If the image areas of the characters overlap,
It will be apparent from the flowchart of FIG. 3 that the same operation is performed when an overlap occurs between a larger number of characters.

As described above, the coordinate information and the image area of a plurality of character forming data located in one transport unit are recognized, and based on the information, the character forming data is classified into a plurality of groups, and the character forming data is classified into a plurality of groups. By performing the scanning printing, printing that minimizes the number of occurrences of backlash can be performed.

[0028]

According to the present invention, when a plurality of print target data are printed out at individually designated output positions,
Detects whether there is print target data that can be output to the print output area that overlaps each other, and if so, converts each of the print target data into a group of print target data whose output areas do not overlap each other. Grouping,
Since the printout is made for each group, each print target data whose printout area can be output overlapping each other is automatically detected and automatically grouped and printed. As a result, a plurality of print target data which can be overlapped and printed out can be printed quickly without extra backlash or the like.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a print control device according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 4A is a diagram showing print target data used in the embodiment, and FIG. 4B is a diagram showing print information in one transport unit.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a printing operation in one transport unit.

6A is a diagram for explaining printing in which a part of adjacent characters is overlapped, and FIG. 6B is a diagram showing a conventional image forming apparatus for performing printing shown in FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the behavior of the print head during the printing.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... storage means, 2 ... grouping means, 3 ... printing means.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A print target data whose output position is designated.
A plurality of data storage means for storing a plurality of print target data stored in the storage means;
The print pair that can be output to the print output area overlapping each other
Detecting means for detecting whether there is an elephant data, out print output regions overlap each other in the detection means
If it is determined that there is print data that can be input,
The print target data where the output areas do not overlap each other
Data as one group,
Grouping means for grouping into a plurality of groups, and each print grouped by the grouping means
The target data is grouped into groups
And a print control means for performing print output independently for each print operation .