JP3229501B2 - Tape-shaped label making 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 tape-shaped label producing apparatus and, more particularly, to a tape-shaped label producing apparatus which prints a pattern of a continuous pattern in which selected unit patterns are continuous on a tape-shaped printing object.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, the applicant of the present application has disclosed a Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No.
As described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 50, a printing mechanism having a keyboard, a display, and a thermal head is provided, and a tape (for example, a tape width of 9 mm, 12 mm,
This is a tape-shaped label producing device capable of printing characters such as characters and symbols on an ink ribbon (4 mm) via an ink ribbon. The tape is suitable for producing a tape-shaped label suitable for sticking to the spine of a file. We have proposed a practical label making device and put it into practical use.

[0003] By the way, as a tape-shaped label, in addition to a label stuck on the spine of a file, a colorful decorative pattern is printed over, for example, 30 to 40 cm to create a ribbon tape, and a birthday tape is formed. It can be used for various purposes such as a decorative tape attached to a gift such as a marriage. Accordingly, the present application inventors have, a unit dot pattern data of the unit pattern constituting a pattern for decoration, stores multiple patterns partial advance, the unit pattern selected, similarly to the characters or symbols By repeatedly inputting a plurality of times, the unit dot pattern data of the decorative unit pattern is repeatedly developed and printed on a printing tape to create a decorative tape.

[0004]

As conceived by the inventors of the present application, the unit dot pattern data of the decorative unit pattern is repeatedly developed to create the pattern pattern data for the decorative tape. In this case, the unit dot pattern data is handled in the same manner as the character or symbol dot pattern data.
The problem is that the pattern key operation is troublesome because the operation is repeated many times, and furthermore, a predetermined space between characters is provided at each break position of the unit pattern to be repeated, so that a continuous beautiful pattern pattern cannot be printed. There is.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a tape-shaped label producing apparatus which can easily produce a decorative tape in which the selected unit patterns are continued by simply selecting a decorative pattern. is there.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape-shaped label producing apparatus, comprising: input means for inputting characters, symbols and various commands; data storage means for storing input data; In a tape-shaped label producing apparatus having a printing means for receiving pattern data and printing it on a tape-shaped printing object, a pattern information storage for storing a plurality of unit dot pattern data of a unit pattern consisting of a predetermined number of dot rows. Means, pattern selection means for selecting one of a plurality of types of patterns stored in the pattern information storage means, and pattern length for setting the length of the continuous pattern pattern
Setting means and unit dot pattern data of the pattern selected by the pattern selecting means are read out from the pattern information storing means , and one dot row of the unit dot pattern data is read based on the length received from the pattern length setting means. Every pattern day
A continuous pattern pattern data is continuous in the printing direction to expand the data into the print data buffer, the pattern length setting means
And a continuous pattern data creating means for creating continuous pattern data corresponding to the length received from the device.

[0007]

In the tape-shaped label producing apparatus according to the first aspect, the pattern information storage means stores a plurality of unit dot pattern data of a unit pattern composed of a predetermined number of dot examples. When one of a plurality of types of patterns stored in the pattern information storage unit is selected, the continuous pattern data creation unit reads unit dot pattern data of the pattern selected by the pattern selection unit from the pattern information storage unit, 1 de of the unit dot pattern data
Develops pattern data for each row in the print data buffer
To create continuous pattern data continuous in the printing direction. Then, the continuous pattern data is supplied to the printing means and printed on the tape-shaped printing object, thereby creating a tape on which the continuous pattern is printed.

As described above, by simply selecting one of a plurality of types of patterns, continuous pattern pattern data in which the unit dot pattern data of the selected unit pattern is continuous in the printing direction is created, and a tape-shaped pattern is formed. Since it is possible to print on the printing object, it is possible to easily create a tape on which a continuous pattern in which unit patterns are printed is printed. The pattern-like length setting means, setting the length of the continuous pattern pattern, continuous pattern data generating means, so to create a continuous pattern pattern data corresponding to the length received from the pattern length setting means, the pattern length By simply setting, a tape of a desired length on which a continuous pattern is printed can be easily created.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the present embodiment, a case where the present invention is applied to a tape-shaped label producing apparatus that prints a large number of characters such as hiragana characters, alphabetic characters, and symbols on a tape as a print target and creates a tape-shaped label belongs to. As shown in FIG. 1, a keyboard 3 is provided at a front portion of a main body frame 2 of the tape-shaped label producing apparatus 1, and a thermal printing mechanism PM is provided inside the main body frame 2 behind the keyboard 3. Immediately behind the keyboard 3, there is provided a liquid crystal display 4 capable of displaying inputted characters and symbols for three characters.

The keyboard 3 includes a plurality of character keys for inputting numbers and symbols, a space key, a cursor movement key for moving a cursor in the left and right directions, and hiragana characters in katakana characters, in addition to hiragana and alphabet characters. A katakana conversion key for conversion, a kanji conversion key for converting hiragana characters to kanji, a pattern print key for creating a tape on which a selected desired pattern is printed over a desired length, various editing function keys, a print key for instructing printing , Turn on the power
Such as a power key for N · OF F is provided.

Next, the thermal printing mechanism PM includes a laminating tape (printing tape) wound inside a detachably mounted rectangular tape cassette, a thermal head 14 (see FIG. 2) and an ink ribbon. The printed laminate tape is gradually fed in a predetermined feed direction by driving a tape feed motor 16 (see FIG. 2) while printing characters and patterns by means of a dot image through the printer. The tape-shaped label LB is formed by sticking a double-sided tape to the print surface of No. 1. For details of the thermal printing mechanism PM, see JP-A-2-106555.

Next, the control system of the tape-shaped label producing apparatus 1 is configured as shown in the block diagram of FIG. The input / output interface 24 of the control device CD includes a keyboard 3, a display controller (LCDC) 11 having a video RAM 10 for outputting display data to a liquid crystal display (LCD) 4, and a drive circuit for a warning buzzer 12. 13, a drive circuit 15 for driving the thermal head 14, and a drive circuit 17 for driving the tape feed motor 16 are connected to each other.

The control device CD includes a CPU 20 and this CP
An input / output interface 24 connected to U20 via a control bus 25 including a data bus, a display character generator ROM (display CGROM) 21,
Character generator ROM for printing (CGRO for printing
M) 22, a ROM 23 and a RAM 30.

The display CGROM 21 stores display dot pattern data of a predetermined character size for each of a large number of characters such as numbers and symbols, in addition to hiragana characters, katakana characters, and alphabet characters. In the CGROM 22 for printing, in addition to hiragana characters, katakana characters, and alphabet characters, for each of a large number of characters such as kanji, numbers, and symbols, printing dot pattern data is associated with code data for each typeface. A plurality of print character sizes are stored.

The ROM 23 has a display drive control program for controlling the display controller 11 corresponding to character code data such as characters, numbers and symbols input from the keyboard 3, and a dot pattern for each dot row to be printed. A printing drive control program for driving the tape feed motor 16 while sequentially outputting data to the thermal head 14 and a control program for tape-shaped label creation control unique to the present application are stored. In the pattern information memory 23a provided in the ROM 23, as shown in FIG.
The unit dot pattern data of the unit pattern for decoration consisting of about 40 dot rows is stored for four types in association with the pattern numbers “1 to 4”.

The RAM 30 stores a text buffer 31 for storing data of a document inputted from the keyboard 3 for about 50 characters, a pattern number memory 32 for storing a selected pattern number, and a set pattern length. In addition to a pattern length memory 33 for storing, a display data buffer 34 for storing data for display, and a print data buffer 35 for storing dot image data for print output of image-developed characters and pattern data, CPU
Various buffers and the like for storing the calculation results calculated in 20 are provided.

Next, a description will be given of a tape label production control routine performed by the control device CD of the tape label production apparatus 1 with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. In the figure, reference symbol Si (i = 10, 11, 12,...)
・) Is each step. When the power is turned on, initialization processing such as initialization of the thermal printing mechanism PM is executed (S10), and thereafter, a document data input screen is displayed on the display 4 (S11), and input of document data is enabled. Become.

When a printable key such as a space key is operated in addition to the hiragana character key, the number key and the symbol key (S12 / S13: Yes), the key corresponding to the operated printable key is operated. A storage process of storing the code data as text data in the text buffer 31;
The display process for transferring the display dot pattern data of the printable characters and symbols to the display data buffer 33 and displaying it on the display 4 is executed (S16), and the process returns to S12.

When the pattern printing key is operated (S12: Yes, S13: No, S14: Yes), the pattern printing process control (see FIG. 5) is executed (S17). When this control is started, first, a pattern length setting process control is executed (S30). In this pattern length setting process control, first, a pattern length selection screen displaying an initial value of the pattern length “5 cm” is displayed, and every time the right cursor key is operated, the pattern length is changed from “7 cm” to “7 cm”. "10cm" → "15cm" → "20cm"
→ ・ ・ ・ → Displayed sequentially in the normal order of “50 cm”. Each time the cursor left key is operated, the pattern length is
The images are sequentially displayed in the order opposite to the normal order. The displayed pattern length is set by operating the return key, and is stored in the pattern length memory 33. For example, FIG.
As shown in, and the pattern length ri, when "10cm" is displayed, when operating the return key, the "10cm" is stored in the pattern length memory 33.

Next, pattern selection processing control is executed (S
31). In this pattern selection processing control, a pattern number selection screen displaying the pattern number “1” and the pattern of the pattern is displayed. Then, every time the cursor right movement key is operated, the pattern number “1” and the unit pattern of the pattern →
The pattern number “2” and the unit pattern of the pattern are sequentially displayed in the normal order of the pattern number “4” and the unit pattern of the pattern. Also, every time the cursor left key is operated,
The pattern numbers are sequentially displayed in an order opposite to the normal order. Then, by operating the return key, the displayed pattern number is selected and stored in the pattern number memory 32. For example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the return key is operated while the pattern number “1” and the unit pattern of the pattern are displayed, the pattern number “1” is stored in the pattern number memory 32. .

Next, continuous pattern data creation processing control (FIG. 6)
(See S32). When this control is started, first, the unit dot pattern data corresponding to the pattern number stored in the pattern number memory 32 is read from the pattern information memory 23a and temporarily stored in the work memory of the RAM 30 (S40). ), And the pattern length memory 33
, The pattern length value is read and stored temporarily in the work memory (S41).

Next, the pattern data of one dot row of the unit dot pattern data is read from the work memory and expanded in the print data buffer 35 (S42). Next, when the print width value of the developed dot row is smaller than the pattern length value (S43: No), when all the dot rows of the unit dot pattern data have not been expanded (S44: N
o), S42 to S44 are repeatedly executed, and the unit dot pattern data is sequentially developed in the printing direction. When the development of all the unit dot pattern data is completed (S44: Yes), S40 and the subsequent steps are repeatedly executed until the pattern length value is reached. The data is expanded in the buffer 35. Then, as a result of continuously developing the unit dot pattern data in the print data buffer 35,
When the continuous pattern data corresponding to the pattern length value is created (S43: Yes), this control is terminated and the process returns to S33 of the pattern printing process control.

Next, in the pattern printing process control, the continuous pattern data developed in the print data buffer 35 is output to the thermal printing mechanism PM, and the continuous pattern is sequentially printed on the laminate tape by the thermal head 14. A tape-shaped label LB on which the selected pattern is printed, that is, a decorative tape having a set length is created (S33), this control is ended, and the process returns to the tape-shaped label creation control S12. For example, as shown in FIG.
The decorative tape LB in which the continuous pattern of the selected pattern number “1” is printed over the set length “10 cm” is created.

In the tape label production control, when the print key is operated (S12: Yes, S13
S14: No, S15: Yes), the document printing process is executed (S18), and the process returns to S12. In this document printing process,
The document data stored in the text buffer 31 is stored in a print data buffer 35 developed into dot image data, and a print command signal including dot row data for each dot row is terminated by the thermal head 14 and the tape feed motor 16. And printed, tape-shaped label LB
Is created. By the way, when a key other than the printable key, the pattern print key and the print key is operated (S12:
(Yes, S13 to S15: No), various processes corresponding to the operated various keys are executed (S19), and the process returns to S12.

Next, a description will be given of the operation of the pattern printing process control for producing a tape-shaped label in which the unit patterns of the selected patterns are printed continuously. When one of the four types of patterns is selected, continuous pattern pattern data obtained by developing the unit dot pattern data of the selected unit pattern continuously in the printing direction is created in the print data buffer 35, and the pattern length is set. It is sequentially printed on the corresponding laminate tape,
A tape-shaped label LB in which unit patterns of the selected pattern are printed continuously, that is, a decorative tape having a set desired length can be easily created.

The color of the double-sided tape or the ink ribbon wound on the tape cassette mounted on the thermal printing mechanism PM may be configured to be colorful, such as "red", "yellow", or "green". Within the technical idea of the present invention, such as inserting and printing a congratulatory message such as "Congratulations on marriage" in the middle of the continuous pattern, the control of the above-described embodiment may be performed using existing technologies or those skilled in the art. Various modifications may be made based on obvious techniques. Of course, the present invention can be applied to various tape-shaped label producing apparatuses having a display, a keyboard, and a printing mechanism.

[0027]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a tape-shaped label producing apparatus comprising an input means, a data storing means, and a printing means, further comprising a pattern information storing means, a pattern selecting means, and a continuous pattern data producing means. And one of a plurality of types of patterns
By simply selecting one, the pattern data for each dot row of the unit dot pattern data of the selected unit pattern
A continuous pattern pattern data that is developed in the print data buffer and continuous in the printing direction is created and printed on the tape-shaped printing object, so it is easy to create a tape that prints a continuous pattern with continuous unit patterns Can be done .

[0028] with a pattern length setting means for setting the length of the previous Symbol continuous pattern pattern, continuous pattern data creation means, create a continuous pattern pattern data corresponding to the length received from the pattern length setting means Therefore, a tape of a desired length on which a continuous pattern is printed can be easily created only by setting the pattern length.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a tape-shaped label producing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention .

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a control system of the tape-shaped label producing device.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a data configuration of a unit pattern memory.

FIG. 4 is a schematic flowchart of a routine of tape-like label production control.

FIG. 5 is a schematic flowchart of a pattern printing process control routine.

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of a routine for controlling continuous pattern data creation processing.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a display example of a pattern length selection screen.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of a pattern number selection screen.

FIG. 9 shows a continuous unit pattern having a pattern number “1” of 10 cm.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of a tape-shaped label printed over a range.

[Description of Signs] 1 Tape-shaped label producing device 3 Keyboard 14 Thermal head 20 CPU 31 Text buffer 23 ROM 23a Pattern information memory 30 RAM CD Controller PM Thermal printing mechanism

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Mayumi Nishio 15-1 Naeshiro-cho, Mizuho-ku, Nagoya-shi Inside Brother Industries, Ltd. (56) References JP-A-5-294043 (JP, A) JP-177875 (JP, A) JP-A-5-330198 (JP, A) JP-A-6-328791 (JP, A) JP-A-5-318802 (JP, A) JP-A-3-20160 (JP, U) (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B41J 3/36 B41J 2/485 B41J 29/26 G06F 17/21 562 G06F 17/21 566

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An input means for inputting characters, symbols and various commands, a data storage means for storing input data, and printing for receiving a dot pattern data for printing and printing it on a tape-shaped printing object. Means for storing a plurality of patterns of unit dot pattern data of a unit pattern comprising a predetermined number of dot rows; and a plurality of types of pattern information stored in the pattern information storage means. A pattern selecting means for selecting one of the patterns; and a pattern length setting for setting the length of the continuous pattern.
A constant section, reads the unit dot pattern data for the selected pattern by said pattern selection means from the pattern information storing means, the pattern length setting
Based on the length received from the setting means, the pattern data for each dot row of this unit dot pattern data
This is continuous pattern data that has been developed in a buffer and continued in the printing direction, and the length received from the pattern length setting means.
And a continuous pattern data creating means for creating continuous pattern data corresponding to the following .