JPH0437791B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Summary] In a print control device that assembles and prints a print pattern related to output data line by line, when outputting characters with vertical enlargement (including 4x enlargement; the same applies hereinafter), first the vertical The normal character pattern of the line containing the expansion control symbol is output without a line break with the line feed pitch set to 0. Next, the upper pattern of the vertically expanded character is output by specifying the vertical expansion start bit position, etc. This invention discloses a vertically enlarged character printing control device which can easily control the output of vertically enlarged characters by providing means for outputting the lower pattern of the vertically enlarged characters together with the normal character pattern of the next line.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a print control device that outputs a document created in a document creation device such as a Japanese word processor to a dot printer or the like. This invention relates to a character printing control device.

[Conventional technology]

FIG. 7 shows an example of a conventional printing method. For example, when an instruction is given to output the contents of a document file 40 created by a document creation device to the printer 46, the print processing section 41 and the printer control section 43 perform printing control as follows.

The print processing unit 41 prints the character files 40 to 1.
Reads the JIS code for a line and processes specified in the print menu as necessary (kinzoku, insert)
etc., and assemble one line of data into the JIS code buffer 42.

Then, it specifies parameters such as the address of the JIS code buffer 42, issues a WRITE command, and requests the printer control unit 43 to output.

The printer control unit 43 obtains a pattern corresponding to each character code from the character generator 44 according to the instructed parameters, and converts the print pattern for one line into a one-line pattern buffer 45.
Create to.

After creating the pattern, drive the printer 46 and print 1
Controls printing of line patterns and line feed operations.

The print processing section 41 repeatedly executes the following steps until the document data in the document file 40 is completed.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

According to the above-mentioned conventional method, the output is managed on a line-by-line basis and a pattern is created on a line-by-line basis, so printing and line feed are repeated on a line-by-line basis. Therefore, there was a problem in that it was not possible to print out vertically enlarged characters in which the pattern spanned multiple lines.

That is, in FIG. 7, when the printer control unit 43 that creates a pattern creates a pattern of vertically enlarged characters, the character code and code information for instructing vertical enlargement are required, but the document file 4
At 0, these span two rows of data. Therefore, in the printer control unit 43, 1
Line-by-line output control has a problem in that pattern creation and line feed control cannot be executed in the correct order.

Note that in the conventional method, the printer control unit 43
There are devices that allow multiple lines of code information to be referenced in memory and output vertically enlarged characters, but in this case, the interface between the print processing section 41 and the printer control section 43 becomes complicated, and the printer There is a problem that the change in the control section 43 is large.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 shows a basic block diagram of the present invention.

The document file 10 is a file in which document data requested to be printed is stored. (n+1)th
The character "B" in the row is specified to be a vertical expansion pattern by the vertical expansion control symbol VC in the n-th line. Note that this designation of vertically enlarged characters can be considered to be performed in the same manner as the designation of conventionally known horizontally enlarged characters, for example, in a document creation device.

In the print processing section 11, the line data reading section 1
2 executes a process of reading out the data of the document file 10 stored, for example, on a floppy disk, line by line. Vertical expansion control symbol check section 13
examines the data read by the row data reading section 12 and checks whether there is a vertical enlargement control symbol VC.

The non-line feed data output section 14 is a vertical expansion control symbol.
For a line with a VC, a request is made to the printer control unit 21 to output a line feed pitch of "0". The vertical enlargement parameter output unit 15 notifies the printer control unit 21 of parameters 19 related to vertical enlargement pattern creation.

In order to overprint the vertically enlarged upper pattern, the next line data output unit 16 outputs the next line data in which the code of the vertically enlarged character is stored to the printer controller 16.
1.

Print data is passed from the print processing section 11 to the printer control section 21 via the JIS code buffer 17 and the extended line buffer 18. The expansion line buffer 18 stores information indicating vertical expansion corresponding to the characters in the JIS code buffer 17.

The printer control section 21 is composed of firmware and hardware circuits. In the printer control section 21, a pattern reading section 22 reads out a pattern corresponding to a character code from the character generator 20. Regarding the pattern read from the character generator 20, the vertical expansion pattern generation unit 23
By making two dots consecutive in the vertical direction, a vertically enlarged pattern is created. The printer drive section 24 drives the printer 25 to perform printout.

[Effect]

In FIG. 1, when the row data reading unit 12 reads out the n-th row data, the vertical expansion control symbol check unit 13 checks the vertical expansion control symbol.
VC is detected. As a result, the non-line feed data output unit 14 issues a WRITE command with a line feed pitch of "0" for that line. At this time, the expansion line buffer 18 notifies the vertically expanded character position. As a result, the printer 25 will print something like the output 25a. Print head 26 does not move.

Next, the vertical expansion parameter output section 15
The WWRITE (extension write) command notifies parameters 19 regarding vertical enlargement. and,
The next line data output unit 16 sends the (n+1)th line data to the printer control unit 21 using a WRITE command. "B" is in the expansion line buffer 18.
A flag indicating vertical expansion is set at the position corresponding to the character code.

The vertical enlarged pattern generation section 23 generates a vertical enlarged pattern from the "B" pattern read by the pattern reading section 22 based on the information specified by the parameter 19, and passes control to the printer drive section 24. As a result, the upper pattern of "B" is printed as in the output 25b. Note that after this printing, line feed is performed at a predetermined pitch.

Furthermore, the normal character pattern of the (n+1)th line and the lower pattern of the character "B" are printed,
The output will be as shown in 25c. The lowest bit position of the regular character pattern and the lowest bit position of the lower pattern of the vertically enlarged character are determined to match, so the regular character pattern and the lower pattern of the vertically enlarged character must be printed at the same time. is possible.

As described above, printing of the normal character pattern on the nth line, printing of the upper pattern of vertically enlarged characters,
According to the present invention, the normal character pattern of the (n+1)th line and the lower pattern of the vertically enlarged character are printed. The printer control unit 21 can control printing of vertically enlarged characters without being aware of multiple lines.

〔Example〕

Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the print processing unit, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of control of an embodiment of the printer control unit, Fig. 4 is an example of WRITE command parameters, Fig. 5 is an illustration of vertical enlargement parameters, FIG. 6 shows an example of a document creation device using the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows the processing contents of the print processing section 11 shown in FIG. 1 in the form of a flowchart. In response to an instruction to print a document, a line pointer to the document file 10 in which the character code string to be output is stored is first set in the process P1 shown in FIG. and,
In process P2, a character code for one line based on, for example, JIS code is read out.

If no vertical enlargement control symbol is detected in the determination in process P3, the line feed pitch specified in the print menu is set in process P4, and a WRITE command is issued in process P5, as in the conventional process. After that, the process returns to process P1.

If a vertical expansion control symbol is detected in the determination in process P3, an expansion line is created in process P6, and a vertical expansion flag indicating the upper pattern of vertical expansion is set. Then, by process P7, the line break pitch of the parameter is set to "0", and by process P8,
Issue a WRITE command.

Next, in process P9, a vertical enlargement parameter, which will be described later, is created, and in process P10, an EWRITE command for notifying the parameter is issued.

By processing P11, the next line is transferred to document file 1.
0, a vertical expansion flag is set in the extended line by process P12, and WRITE is obtained by process P13.
Issue a command. As a result, the upper pattern of the vertically enlarged character is printed. after that,
Returning to process P3, the process is repeated in the same manner to output the next line's normal character pattern and the lower pattern of the vertically enlarged character.

The printer control unit 21 is controlled by firmware as shown in FIG. When a command is notified while waiting for a command in process P20, the command code is decoded in process P21. If it is a WRITE command, read the JIS code one character at a time by processing P22,
By processing P23, the character generator 20
Get the pattern from.

If vertical enlargement is necessary as determined in process P24, a vertical enlargement pattern is created in process P25. Note that this enlarged pattern creation is performed within the range specified by the vertical enlargement parameter notified in advance. Once the pattern for one line has been assembled, the printer is driven in process P26, and the process returns to process P20.

If the command is an EWRITE command,
Through process P28, vertical enlargement parameters are received,
Remembering that vertical enlargement is necessary, proceed to process P20.
Return to

The parameters of the WRITE command transmitted to the printer control unit 21 are as shown in FIG. Command code C1 indicates firmware entry. Line break bit C2 is
Indicates the pitch at which the printing paper is advanced after printing. The pattern development dot C3 indicates the dot width for developing the pattern. The JIS line buffer address C4 indicates the start address of the JIS line buffer 17. The extended row buffer address C5 indicates the start address of the extended row buffer 18. Note that there are various other parameters, but detailed explanations will be omitted. As described above, the expansion line buffer 18 stores instruction information regarding vertical expansion in correspondence with the JIS line buffer 17. A flag is provided to distinguish between an upper pattern of vertical expansion, a lower pattern of vertical expansion, and the like.

By the EWRITE command, printer control unit 2
The vertical expansion parameters transmitted to 1 include, for example, a vertical expansion start bit, a vertical expansion end bit, and vertical expansion overline position information.

As shown in FIG. The bit indicates the number of bits in the entire enlarged pattern in which the enlarged pattern placed in that row is located. The area between the vertical expansion start bit and the vertical expansion end bit is the expansion range. If the vertical expansion start bit is 0, only the overline is printed.

The vertical expansion overline position indicates from which dot in the row the vertical expansion overline is drawn, as shown in FIG. 5C.

These start/end bits are 1 at the top of the pattern and 60 at the bottom (for a 30x30 dot character). In 24×24 dot characters, the bottom is
It is 48. Expanded patterns are always filled from the bottom of the line, so no parameter is needed to specify where the pattern should start.

By using these parameters, for example, printing can be performed at various line feed pitches in a print menu without dividing the character pattern.

In the above embodiments, a vertically elongated enlarged pattern has been described, but it is also possible to print characters in a so-called 4 times enlarged manner in which the characters are enlarged twice in both the vertical and horizontal directions. In the case of 4x enlargement, it can be thought that the dots that make up the vertically enlarged character pattern are arranged horizontally, two by two. Instruction information regarding quadruple enlarged characters can also be notified to the printer control section 21 by a plug in the expansion line buffer 18. In addition, the expansion line of the expansion line buffer 18 may contain, for example, Gothic characters, 12
It is also possible to provide an instruction flag such as a point character.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of a document creation device to which the present invention is applied.

When character information is input from the keyboard 30 via the keyboard control section 31, the document creation/editing processing section 32 creates a document in the document file 10 while displaying it on the display 34 using the display control section 33. When there is a print instruction from the keyboard 30,
The print processing unit 11 reads the JIS code from the character file 10 into the input buffer 35, and executes the processing shown in FIG. As a result, the printer control section 21 sets the character pattern in the one-line pattern buffer 36 and drives the printer 25.
If the JIS code to be output includes a predetermined vertical expansion control symbol, a pattern including vertical expansion characters will be printed out.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, when outputting vertically enlarged characters, two lines of data are passed to the printer firmware by specifying no line breaks, that is, the line feed pitch is "0". This eliminates the need for this, and it becomes possible to simplify the interface between the application that performs printing processing and the firmware that controls the printer. This has made it possible to output vertically enlarged printout without significantly modifying existing equipment.
For example, by providing a flag indicating Gothic characters or the like in the expansion line, vertical expansion of Gothic characters or the like is also possible.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of the principle of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of processing of an embodiment of the print processing section, Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram of control of an embodiment of the printer control section, and Fig. 4 is an illustration of the control of an embodiment of the printer control section.
An example of WRITE command parameters, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of vertically enlarged parameters, FIG. 6 is an example of a document creation device using the present invention, and FIG. 7 is an example of a conventional system. In the figure, 11 is a print processing section, 13 is a vertical enlargement control symbol check section, 14 is a non-line feed data output section, 15
16 represents a vertical expansion parameter output unit, 16 represents a next line data output unit, 18 represents an expansion line buffer, and 21 represents a printer control unit.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claim] A printing control device including a printer control unit 21 that obtains output data line by line, generates a print pattern based on the output data, and outputs the printout, comprising: a character code for each line to be output; Checks whether there is a vertical expansion control symbol in the data that instructs the character pattern indicated by the character code at the corresponding position on the next line to be expanded vertically to span the current line. means 13 for checking, when the checking means detects a vertical expansion control symbol, sets an instruction for vertical expansion characters in the expansion line passed to the printer control unit 21 together with the line data to be output, and sets the line feed pitch to 0; means 14 for instructing the printer control section 21 to print out; means 15 for sending parameters necessary for creating a vertically enlarged pattern to the printer control section 21; and a means 16 for instructing the printer control section 21 to output the vertically enlarged upper pattern for pattern creation; It is characterized by outputting the normal character pattern of the included line, overprinting the upper pattern of the vertically enlarged character, and outputting the normal character pattern of the next line and the lower pattern of the vertically enlarged character. Vertical enlarged character printing control device.