JPH0458798B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] When printing on arbitrarily formatted paper, it is impossible to print with a normal printer. A character pattern divided into printing areas and given a plurality of printing positions is prepared, and printing is made possible by selecting this character pattern in accordance with the paper format.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a device for printing on arbitrarily formatted printing paper, and more particularly to a printing device that is capable of printing within a formatted frame at intervals different from the printing intervals provided in the printer.

In recent years, computers have been significantly introduced in various industries, and a wide variety of systems have been constructed. Among these systems, there are many systems that automate manual work using optical mark readers (OMR) and optical character readers (OCR).

However, in such systems, although progress has been made in the development of devices on the reading side, development of devices for printing characters to be read has not progressed much in small-scale systems, except for large-scale systems. For example, in the processing of various forms in companies, characters read using OCR or the like are processed by a computer, but characters are written on the OCR paper manually.

In other words, when data is transferred from one system to another using OCR paper, manual work is always involved. This is because the character writing position on the OCR paper depends on the OCR, and no systematic consideration has been made for the writing side.

By the way, in normal small-scale systems, inexpensive dot printers are used, but in order to eliminate the manual work mentioned above, you can use these dot printers to print characters, etc. on arbitrarily formatted OCR paper. It is necessary to obtain.

[Conventional technology]

In conventional dot printers, the positions at which characters can be printed are set in advance, and it is not possible to print characters, etc., at arbitrary positions that ignore the set printing intervals.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In order to eliminate the need to manually write characters on OCR paper and improve the reliability of the reader by improving the quality of the characters, it is necessary to print using an inexpensive dot printer. However, conventional dot printers have a problem in that they cannot print on OCR paper formatted at arbitrary intervals.

[Means for solving problems]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a circuit showing one embodiment of the present invention.

1 is an input display unit that displays print data; 2 is a storage device such as a magnetic disk that stores data for printing; 3 is a control unit that controls the entire printing device; and 4 is a unit that reads print position information on OCR paper. The position information reading unit 5 is a print position determining unit that determines the amount of print position deviation from the position information read by the position information reading unit 4 and the printing interval of the printer 8.

6 is a table 7 based on the print code input via the control unit 3 and the print position information input from the print position determination unit 5.
The character pattern conversion unit 7 generates the address of a character pattern specified by the same print code that gives multiple print positions within one print area, and the character pattern that is divided into adjacent print areas and gives multiple print positions. 8 is a printer that prints characters with dots, and 9 is OCR paper.

The control unit 3 causes the position information reading unit 4 to read the print position information pre-printed on the OCR paper 9, causes the print position determination unit 5 to create print position information, and the character pattern conversion unit 6 converts the print code and print. Based on the position information, an address for reading a desired character pattern is created from a table 7 that stores character patterns formed by shifting the printing position in advance. and,
The character pattern read at this address is sent to the printer 8 to be printed.

[Effect]

With the above configuration, the OCR paper can be
It is possible to print characters, etc. within the printed frame at a print position that depends on OCR.

〔Example〕

In FIG. 1, an input display section 1 displays print data read from a storage device 2 and allows an operator to confirm the print contents. The control unit 3 controls the position information reading unit 4 to read the print position information printed on the OCR paper 9 in advance.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of the OCR paper 9.

Figure 2 a shows barcodes 10 and 1 on OCR paper 9.
1 indicates that the print position information is printed. For example, the barcode 10 records printing position information in the horizontal direction, and the barcode 11 records printing position information in the vertical direction, and numerically represents character spacing, number of characters, conversion classification of each character, etc.

That is, the barcode 10 represents a character conversion classification that indicates a character pattern corresponding to the interval between the printing frames 12 and 13, the number of characters to be printed in the horizontal direction, and the horizontal printing position shift described later, and the barcode 11 represents the character conversion classification that indicates the character pattern corresponding to the spacing between the printing frames 12 and 13, the number of characters to be printed in the horizontal direction, and the horizontal printing position shift described later. and 14, the number of characters to be printed in the vertical direction, and the character pattern that corresponds to the vertical printing position shift.

In Figure 2b, the printing position information is line 1 on OCR paper 9.
5 and 16 are printed. That is, the positions of the horizontal printing frames 12 and 13 are set by the line 15.
However, a line 16 indicates the position of the print frames 12 and 14 in the vertical direction.

When the OCR paper shown in FIG.

When using barcodes 10 and 11 as shown in FIG. 2a, the character spacing, number of characters, and character conversion classification are already recorded, so the print position determination section 5 only decodes these information. Figure 2b
When using the lines 15 and 16 shown in , from the interval between the lines 15 or 16 and the printing interval of the printer 8,
In order to determine the printing position deviation, the printing position determination unit 5
The circuitry becomes complicated and expensive, making it unsuitable for small-scale systems.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating combinations of character patterns.

For example, in the horizontal direction, when printing is done approximately in the center of the printing area, the character conversion section is used, when printing is done to the right, the character conversion section is taken, and when printing is placed to the left, the character conversion section is taken as ``character conversion section''.

In addition, when the character pattern is divided into adjacent printing areas, when the character pattern is divided in half, the left half character conversion section is used, the right half character conversion section is used, and when the character pattern is divided on the left side, the left half is used as the character conversion section. Let the character conversion classification of the right half be the character conversion classification of the right half,
When a character pattern is divided on the right side, the left half is the character conversion section, and the right half is the character conversion section.

Although FIG. 3 shows an example of a character pattern in which the printing position is shifted in the horizontal direction, the same applies when the printing position is shifted in the vertical direction, and when it is further shifted in the diagonal direction, the above combination can be used.

When recording a character conversion classification in the barcode shown in FIG. decide.

The character pattern conversion unit 6 creates an address for indexing the table 7 from the character conversion category in the print position information sent by the print position determination unit 5 and the print code sent by the control unit 3, and reads the character pattern. put out. Then, print data is created from the character spacing and number of characters in the print position information and sent to the printer 8, and the printer 8 prints on the OCR paper 9'.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the table 7.

When character conversion sections are assigned in the X direction and character codes are assigned in the Y direction, for example, if the character conversion section is character code _Y1 , a character pattern is printed one after another in the center of the print area.

Similarly, in the case of character conversion classification and character code Y ₁ , character patterns are printed one after another to the right of the printing area, and in the case of character conversion classification and character code Y ₁ , character patterns are printed one after another to the left of the printing area, If the character conversion class and character code Y is ₁ , a character pattern in which the left half is printed in the print area will be printed one after another, and if the character conversion division and character code is Y ₁ , a character pattern in which the right half will be printed in the print area will be printed one after another. .

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the effect of FIG. 1.

Assuming that a in FIG. 5 is the formatted printing frame of the OCR paper, and b is the printing interval of the printer 8,
Conventionally, as shown in c or d, the printing position of the printed characters begins to shift within the printing frame, and eventually they end up protruding from the printing frame.

Here, when the character pattern shown in FIG. 3 is read and printed using the character conversion section shown in e, characters printed outside the print frame can be printed within the print frame as shown in f.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention makes it possible to print characters, etc. on arbitrarily formatted paper using an inexpensive dot printer, making it possible to eliminate manual OCR form entry in small-scale systems. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram of a circuit showing an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of OCR paper,
FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining combinations of character patterns, FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining an example of a table, and FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the effect of FIG. 1. In the figure, 1 is an input display section, 2 is a storage device,
3 is a control unit, 4 is a position information reading unit, 5 is a print position determination unit, 6 is a character pattern conversion unit, 7 is a table, 8 is a printer, and 9 is an OCR paper.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A printing device that prints characters, etc. at preset printing intervals, which prints a character pattern specified by the same printing code that gives a plurality of printing positions within one printing area, and an adjacent character pattern. A table 7 of font characters consisting of character patterns specified by the same printing code divided into printing areas and provided with a plurality of printing devices; means 4; a print position determination means 5 for determining the amount of print position deviation from the print position information read by the reading means 4 and the set printing interval; and a print code sent by the print position determination means 5. address creation means 6 for creating an address for reading out the font characters in the table 7 based on the amount of printing position deviation; A printing device that prints characters corresponding to the printing code.