JPH064346B2 - Printer - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a printer suitable for printing various data such as a product name and price on a price tag (label) attached to a product or a receipt.

[Prior art]

Label printers that print on the labels attached to products,
Receipt printers that print on receipts issued to purchasers are used in shops and markets, and contribute to the efficiency of sales processing. In this case, the print format for label printers and receipt printers is
Content to print, size of label (or receipt),
And the layout specified by the user.
Therefore, conventionally, a different print control program is created for each user, and printing conforming to a predetermined print format is performed based on this unique program.

[Problems to be solved by the invention]

However, it is extremely inefficient to create a different printing program for each user. Further, since label paper and receipt paper have various shapes and sizes, it is extremely convenient if these papers can be switched and used, but in a conventional printer with a fixed printing program, it is predetermined. It was inconvenient because it was possible to print only on the specified paper.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a printer that does not need to create a different printing program for each user and can immediately respond even when a paper or the like is changed. It is an object.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is a printer that prints data of each print item such as a product name and a price on a print sheet, and an operation unit that inputs print data and various commands,
With respect to the data register in which the data of each print item to be printed is stored and at least which position on the printing paper should be used as the printing reference for the data of each print item, X
Reference position designation parameter designated by coordinates and Y coordinate, and 0 °, 90 °, 180 °, 2 around this reference position
The format register composed of a readable / writable memory that stores a print direction designation parameter for instructing which rotation direction of 70 ° is to be printed, and the setting / changing of each parameter in the format register are described above. Data setting / changing means for carrying out based on the print specification data input from the operating means, a character generator in which character patterns are stored in advance, and a storage area corresponding to the print area on the paper are provided. Is divided into p-bits (p is a positive integer) and sequentially addressed, and a character pattern corresponding to the data of each print item is associated with the print direction specifying parameter from the character generator. Read in p-bit units in the order After elaborate come, the data written to the read register, by the number of bits is calculated based on the reference positional parameters and the number of bits p Y
The data written in the writing register should be written based on the reference position designating parameter, the printing direction designating parameter, and the order of characters by shifting by coordinates and writing to the writing register in units of p bits.
A write control unit that calculates the address of the screen memory and writes the data written in the write register to the address of the screen memory, and a printing unit that performs printing based on the data in the screen memory. It has.

[Action]

Data setting / based on the data input from the operating means
Each parameter in the format register is freely set / changed by the changing means, and the writing control unit outputs the character pattern corresponding to the data of each print item from the character generator in the order corresponding to the print direction designation parameter in p-bit units. After reading with and writing to the reading register, the data written in the reading register is shifted in the Y coordinate by the number of bits calculated based on the reference position designation parameter and the number of bits p, and written in the writing register. , The data written in the writing register should be written based on the reference position designation parameter, the print direction designation parameter, and the order of the characters.
The address of the screen memory is calculated, the data written in the write register is written to the address of the screen memory, and the printing unit prints based on the data in the screen memory. Therefore,
The print format can be set / changed arbitrarily.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

First, an outline of the print processing operation in the electronic scale with printer (see FIG. 7) which is an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

Reference numeral 1 shown in FIGS. 2 (a) and 2 (b) is a view showing a printable area in this embodiment, and corresponds to a predetermined print column of a label sheet or a receipt sheet. (As will be described later, the electronic scale with printer is configured to print on label paper and receipt paper by replacing the cassette.) That is, in the case of label paper, FIG.
It corresponds to the area E ₁ shown in (a), and in the case of receipt paper, it corresponds to the area E ₂ shown in (b) of the figure (however, the number of merchandise items is 1). In this case, the size of the printable area 1 is set to be larger than the areas E ₁ and E ₂ .

Then, in the printing process in this embodiment, the position and orientation of the print block such as the product name and unit price are set in advance by predetermined parameters, and thereafter various printing is performed according to the set format. This point will be described below. B ₁ shown in FIG. 2A is a product name printing block, and the point P at the lower left is the reference position of the block. Further, in this embodiment, as shown in the figure, the coordinates of the reference position P can be arbitrarily designated. In this case, the origin of the coordinates is set at the lower left point of the printable area 1, and the origin coordinate P ₀ is (1, 1). Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 6B, the direction of the product name printing block can be changed, and 0 °, 90 ° counterclockwise around the reference position P,
Each direction of 180 ° and 270 ° can be set. The setting of the reference position P and the setting of the block direction described above are similarly performed in various printing blocks described later, that is, a price printing block, a weight printing block, a bar code printing block and the like.

However, in the case of a receipt, the number of product item data to be printed increases or decreases depending on the number of items purchased by the customer. Therefore, in the printable area 1, a block for one item (for example, FIG.
Although only specifies the area E _'2) in (b),
Actually, the product item data of the number corresponding to the product purchased by the customer is continuously printed (the area E ′ ₂ increases according to the number of items). For this reason, in the case of a receipt, the setting range of the print format is somewhat limited as compared with the label. The above is the outline of the print processing operation.

Next, the configuration of this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of this embodiment, and reference numeral 3 shown in the drawing is a 16-bit CP for controlling each part of the apparatus.
U (central processing unit). Reference numeral 4 is a ROM in which programs used in the CPU 3 are stored, 5 is a RAM in which various kinds of processing data are temporarily stored, 6 is a character generator (hereinafter referred to as CG) in which character patterns such as kanji, kana, and numerical values are stored. is there. A format register 7 is a register that stores X and Y coordinates of the reference position P of each print block and parameters indicating the orientation of the print block. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram showing the structure of the format register 7, and as shown in the figure, each item has separate storage areas Fe1 to Fen. Then, in each of the columns X, Y, M, and A of each area Fe1 to Fen, each X
Each data of the coordinate, the Y coordinate, the size of the character, and the direction of the print block is stored. In this case, the data of "0" or "1" is written in the M column for instructing the size of the character, and in the case of "0", the same number of dots as the character pattern in the CG6 is printed, In the case of 1 ", the number of dots of the character pattern in the CG 6 is doubled in both the vertical and horizontal directions to print the pattern. Further, any value of “0”, “1”, “2”, and “3” is written in the A column for instructing the direction of the print block, and the values of 0 °, 90 °, 180 °, and 270 ° are written respectively. Indicate the direction. Next, 8 shown in FIG. 1 is a screen memory, and the storage area of this screen memory 8 corresponds to the printable area 1 described above. FIG. 5 is a conceptual diagram showing the configuration of the screen memory 8. FIG. 5 (a) is a diagram in which the screen memory 8 is represented by an address space. The storage area of the screen memory 8 is divided into 1-byte (= 8 bits) and addresses are assigned from 1 to 8192. ing. Further, FIG. 5 (b) is a diagram in which the screen memory 8 is expressed in a one-to-one correspondence with the printable area 1, and when expressed in this way, the screen memory 8 has a bit number in the X direction of 128 bits. , The total number of bits in the Y direction is 512, totaling 65536 bits (= 81
(92 bytes) storage area.
Therefore, the X coordinate can be specified in the range of "1" to "128", and the Y coordinate can be specified in the range of "1" to "512". The 8192-byte storage area is divided into 1-byte (= 8 bits) areas as shown in FIG. 5, and addresses are assigned in the order shown in the figure, and the address is accessed by the CPU 3. ing.

Next, reference numeral 9 is a data register, which is composed of storage areas De1 to Den for each item such as price data, price unit, weight data, etc., as shown in FIG. A code or the like indicating is stored. next,
First 10 shown in FIG denotes a printer unit, a pulse motor 12,128 dots heating resistor _r 1 thermal head 11 consisting ~r _n (corresponding to the X direction of the screen memory 8) for driving the paper, the thermal head A drive circuit 13 for driving 11, a shift register 14 for shifting and storing print data, and a printer interface 15 for exchanging data with the CPU 3. In this case, the printer interface 15 outputs the drive pulse MCP for driving the pulse motor 12, the print pulse DP to the drive circuit 13, the clock pulse CP to the shift register 14, and the print data DATA based on the control data of the CPU 3. Next, 17 is an operation part, and as shown in FIG.
It is composed of a large number of keys (numerical keys, function keys, etc.) and is used to input various data to the CPU 3. 18 is a display unit, which is a price, a price unit,
It is composed of indicators 18a to 18d for displaying various weights and the like. Reference numeral 19 shown in FIG. 1 is a weighing unit including a load cell (not shown) and a weighing pan 19a (see FIG. 7), and supplies weight data to the CPU 3. Further, reference numeral 20 shown in FIG. 7 denotes a paper feeding unit, which supplies paper to the printer unit 10 shown in FIG. The paper feeding unit 20 is of a detachable cassette type, and two types are prepared, one for storing receipt paper and the other for storing label paper, and either one is appropriately set. It is like this. Further, at a predetermined position of the label cassette, a through hole for automatic paper type determination is provided. Depending on whether or not there is this through hole, the print control mode of the printer is automatically set for the label or the receipt. It is configured to be selectively switched.

Next, the operation of this embodiment having the above configuration will be described.

First, before using the printer, each parameter is written in the format register 7 in accordance with the printing specifications desired by the user. This writing is usually performed by manipulating the operation unit 17 by a person on the maker side during adjustment before shipment of the product, but in the case of a partial change in the print format, it is performed by the operator on the user side. Is also possible. The operation in this case is
First, a predetermined key switch or the like is turned on to start a format data write routine. This allows
Price data storage area F in the format register 7
e1 is accessed, and a write standby state for this storage area Fe1 is set. Then, for example, in the X, Y, M, and A columns of the storage area Fe1, (64), (256), (0),
If you want to input the data (1),
The following operation is performed on the ten-key pad. That is, Press the keys in the order shown. When this operation ends, the set items are displayed on the display unit 18, and when a predetermined function key for instructing the end of input is pressed, the display on the display unit 18 disappears and the storage area Fe2 for the price unit is displayed. Access is made, and a write standby state for the same area is set. Thereafter, the same operation is sequentially performed to write the format register 7.

In this case, when "0" is set as the X coordinate data, this data is not printed. When initialized, each area F of each format register 7
Since "0" is stored in each of e1 to Fen, the data corresponding to the format register area in which writing is not performed is not printed. The format register 7 is composed of a non-volatile RAM, and once written data is configured to retain its contents even when the power is turned off until it is changed or initialized. There is.

As described above, the predetermined parameters are written in the respective columns of the areas Fe1 to Fen of the format register 7. When a printing operation (usually performed by pressing the print key of the operation unit 17) is performed in this state, the CPU 3 first sets the X coordinate data of the format register 7 to "in accordance with the print control program set in the ROM 4. It is determined whether it is "0", that is, whether or not to print.
If the X coordinate data is not "0", the contents of the data register 9 corresponding to the format register 7 (for example, the contents of the area De1 of the data register 9 when the format register 7 is the area Fe1) are read, The pattern data corresponding to the contents is read from the character generator 6, and the pattern data is sequentially written on the screen memory 8 in accordance with the instruction of each parameter data X, Y, M, A of the format register 7. This operation is performed by the format register 7
Of all areas Fe1 to Fen of the data register 9 and the area Den of the data register 9 corresponding to the area Fen.
Screen memory 8 of pattern data corresponding to the contents of
When the writing to the memory is completed, the CPU 3 supplies the data for one line of the thermal head 11 from the screen memory 8, that is, the data for 128 bits in the X direction of the screen memory 8 to the shift register 14 via the printer interface 15. . And the shift register 1
After the setting of the data for one line to 4 is completed, the thermal head 11 is driven to print the data for one line, and then the pulse motor 12 is driven to feed the paper by a predetermined amount. By repeating this operation in sequence, the contents of the screen memory 8 are printed on the thermal paper by the thermal head 11.

However, in the case of a receipt, the number of item data items to be printed differs depending on the number of product items purchased by the customer, so the process of the item data printing portion is slightly different from the above process.

The above is the outline of the print control in the apparatus of the embodiment, but the process of writing the pattern data into the screen memory 8 will be described in more detail below.

In this embodiment, the operator can arbitrarily specify the coordinates of the reference position P of the print block such as the product name and unit price in bit units. However, as described above, the CG 6 and the screen memory 8 are divided into 1-byte (= 8 bits) and are sequentially assigned addresses, and the CPU 3 uses the CG 6 and the screen memory 8 only with these addresses.
And the data stored in the screen memory 8 cannot be accessed. Therefore, in order to write data at any position of the screen memory 8 and by rotating the character,
Bit manipulation described later is required.

By the way, the writing process of the pattern data to the screen memory 8 may be performed when the character pattern in the CG 6 is enlarged (when M = 1) or not (when M = 0). Which processing is to be performed is determined by the value of M in the storage areas Fe1 to Fen (see FIG. 4) of No. 7.

First, the case of not enlarging, that is, the case of M = 0 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the storage areas Fe1 to Fen of the storage format register 7 corresponding to the item to be written are accessed, the X and Y data values of the accessed storage area are read, and the write start address on the screen memory 8 is determined from these values. Yes (step SP1). In the following description, it is assumed that the item to be written is the “product name”. Next, in step SP2, the product name storage area Den in the data register 9 is accessed to read the data (Kana code or Kanji code) indicating the product name in the area. Then, in step SP3, the character pattern corresponding to the read product name data is read from the CG 6. After reading one character pattern from the CG 6 once and then writing it at an arbitrary position in the screen memory 8 through the processing described later, the arbitrary coordinates in the screen memory 8 shown in FIG. 5 (b) are written. If the start coordinate (not the reference position P) is set, 16 bits are written upward from the write start coordinate regardless of the rotation of the character pattern.
Next, 1 bit upward from the coordinate to the right of the write start coordinate by 1 bit.
6-bit writing, ..., Finally, write start coordinate is 1
16 bits are written upward from the coordinate on the right side of 5 bits. Therefore, the reading process for reading out one character pattern from the CG 6 differs depending on the value of A that specifies the direction of the print block, and the processing operation for each direction will be described below.

When A = 0 (0 °).

First, an example of the character pattern in the CG 6 is shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, and the address of the CG 6 and the dot of the character pattern (P _{00 to} P ₃₁₇ ).
The relationship with is as shown in FIG. Then, when A = 0, the reading is performed as shown in FIG. In the first process, the read register RA
(8 bits), the bit number P ₀₀ of FIG.
., P ₀₄ , ..., P ₀₇ , 8 bits in total (1 byte)
Register RB for writing and reading the dot data of
(8 bits), the bit numbers P ₁₀ , ..., P ₁₄ ,
... _writes the eight-bit dot data _{P 17,} at the next processing address is updated in the processing in step SP7 described below, to the read register RA, bit number _P 20, _{..., P 24} , ..., P _27, a total of 8 bits of dot data is written and read register RB
, Bit numbers P ₃₀ , ..., P ₃₄ , ..., P
A total of ₃₇ 8-bit dot data is written, and so on, in the same order as the writing order to the screen memory 8 (see FIG. 10 (a)). It is to be noted that the read registers RA and RB each have 8 bits because the CP
U3 is a 16-bit CPU, one word at a time (=
This is because data can be processed simultaneously (2 bytes).

In the case of A = 1 (90 °) In the first process, the reading register RA is set in FIG.
Bit numbers P ₁₇ , P ₃₇ , ..., P ₁₅₇ in total of 8
Bit dot data is written, and bit numbers P ₁₇₇ , P ₁₉₇ , ..., P are written in the read register RB.
_In the next process in which a total of 8 bits of dot data of ₃₁₇ are written and the address is updated in the process of step SP7 described later, the bit number P ₁₆ ,
A total of 8-bit dot data of P ₂₆ , ..., P ₁₅₆ is written, and the bit number P is written in the read register RB.
₁₁₆ , P ₁₉₆ , ..., P ₃₁₆ , in total, 8 bits of dot data are written, and so on, in the order of writing to the screen memory 8 and rightward (90 °). (See (b)).

In the case of A = 2 (180 °) In the first process, the reading register RA is set in FIG.
Bit number _{P 317, P 316, ···,} write a total of 8 bits of the dot data of _{P 310,} the read register RB, bit number _{P 307, P 306, ···,}
Writing a total of 8 bits of the dot data of P _300, in the next process the address is updated in the processing in step SP7 described below, to the read register RA, bit number P
_{297, P} 296, ···, writing the dot data of a total of 8 bits of _{P 290,} to the read register RB, bit number _{P 287, P 286, ···,} a total of eight of the _{P 280}
The bit dot data is written, and so on, which is point symmetrical (180 °) with the order of writing to the screen memory 8 (see FIG. 10C).

When A = 3 (270 °) In the first process, the reading register RA is set in FIG.
Bit number _{P 300, P 280, ···,} writing dot data of eight bits in total _{P 160,} the read register RB, bit number _{P 140, P 120, ···,}
Writing a total of 8 bits of the dot data of the P _00, at the next processing address is updated in the processing in step SP7 described below, to the read register RA, bit number _{P 301,} P 281, · · _·, the _{P 161} Write a total of 8 bits of dot data to the read register RB,
A total of 8 bit numbers P ₁₄₁ , P ₁₂₁ , ..., P ₀₁
Bit dot data is written, and the writing order to the screen memory 8 is orthogonal to the left (270
Write in the order of () (see Fig. 10 (d)).

By the way, as already described, the reading of the character pattern from the CG 6 is performed in 1-byte units. Therefore, except for the above, one reading and writing process is performed, and the above-described FIG. Dot data cannot be written to the read registers RA and RB as shown on the right side of FIG.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the read register R
In addition to A and RB, an 8-bit register is used, and 8-bit dot data read from one address of CG6 is once written to this register, and then the bit operation shown below is performed through the following bit operation. As shown on the right side of (d), dot data is written in the read registers RA and RB.

For example, the dot data of bit number P ₁₇ in FIG.
To write to the left end (LSB) of A, first, see FIG.
The 8-bit dot data of the address A1 is read and once written in the register as shown in FIG. In this case, the dot data of bit number P ₁₇ is
Since it is at the right end (MSB) of the register, after masking (writing 0) the other parts (see Fig. 16 (b)),
The data in the register is shifted by 6 bits in the LSB direction (see FIG. 16C). Then, the logical sum of the storage content of the read register RA and the storage content of the register is written to the read register RA.

By repeating the bit operation described above,
As shown on the left side of (b) to (d), the read register R
Data is written in A and RB.

However, FIG. 10 shows the case of a Chinese character whose character pattern is composed of 16 × 16 bits, and the bit numbers are slightly different when the character pattern is a kana or an alphabet composed of 8 × 16 bits. First described later
The same applies to the case of FIG.

Next, the processing of step SP4 will be described.

In this step SP4, the read register R
The data written in A and RB are shifted rightward by a predetermined number of bits determined by the Y coordinate data of the reference position P designated by the operator, and written in the write registers R1, R2 and R3. This is because, in the above-described processing of step SP3, only the rotation of the character pattern is considered and the coordinates of the reference position P are not considered at all, and the coordinates of the reference position P are specified in bit units. However, the writing of the pattern data to the screen memory 8 is performed in byte units. The X coordinate data is considered in the process of step SP5 described later.

First, when the Y coordinate data is Y ₀ , (Y ₀ -1) is divided by 8 to obtain the quotient S and the remainder. The dividend is (Y ₀ -1)
The reason is that the origin coordinate P _{0 is set} to (1, 1), and the divisor is set to “8” for each byte (= 8 bits) in the Y direction of the storage area of the screen memory 8. This is because the addresses are divided and assigned. The quotient S represents the number of the memory counted from the bottom of the 64 memories arranged in the Y direction of the screen memory 8, and the remainder shifts the data up to the number of bits counted from the bottom of the memory. Or write it.

Next, based on the calculated remainder, the read register R
The data written in A and RB are shifted rightward and written in the write registers R1, R2 and R3. For example, if X ₀ = 32, Y ₀ = 61, M = 0, A = 0, the quotient S when (Y ₀ −1) is divided by “8” is “7”.
And the remainder is "4". Therefore, the data written in the read registers RA and RB is shown in FIG.
If you use the data shown on the left side of Fig.
The contents of the read registers RA and RB are written in the write registers R1, R2 and R3 by shifting by 4 bits as shown in FIG. At this time, "0" is set to the lower 4 bits of the register R1 and the upper 4 bits of the register R3. Also, X ₀ = 15, Y ₀ = 24, M = 0, A =
If it is 1, the quotient S when (Y ₀ -1) is divided by "8"
Is "2" and the remainder is "7". Therefore, the first data is written in the read registers RA and RB.
When the data shown on the left side of Fig. 0 (b) is used,
As shown in FIG. 1B, the contents of the read registers RA and RB are written in the write registers R1, R2, and R3 by shifting by 7 bits. At this time, "0" is set to the lower 7 bits of the register R1 and the upper 1 bit of the register R3. When the remainder is "0", the shift process is not performed and the contents of the registers RA and RB are written in the registers R1 and R2 as they are. Then, when the data shift process in step SP4 is completed, the process proceeds to step SP5, and the X coordinate data of the reference position P designated by the operator and the above step SP.
The data written in the write registers R1, R2, and R3 are written in the memory of the address of the screen memory 8 obtained by substituting the quotient S obtained in the process of No. 4 into the equation (1) shown below.

A _S + X ₀ + 128 × (S + n) (1) In the formula (1), A _S is the address immediately before the start address of the screen memory 8 (that is, “A _S +1” is the start address of the screen memory 8). This is because the origin coordinate P ₀ of the screen memory 8 is (1, 1). Also, in equation (1),
n is “0” when writing the data of the writing register R1 to the screen memory 8, “1” when writing the data of the writing register R2 to the screen memory 8, and the data of the writing register R3. "2" is set when writing to.

In the case of A = 0 (0 °) For example, each parameter data stored in the format register 7 has X ₀ = 32, Y ₀ = 61, M = 0, A = 0.
Since the quotient S is “7”, when writing the data of the write register R1, the expression “A _S + X
₀ + 128 × (S + n) ”, X ₀ =“ 32 ”, S =
Substitute “7” and n = “0”. The operation result of the expression is "A
_S +928 ", the data in the write register R1 is written in the 928th memory counted from the start address of the screen memory 8 as shown in FIG. Similarly, the data of the register R2 for writing is expressed by the following formula in the following formula: X ₀ = “32”, S = “7”, n
= “1” is substituted for the calculation result “A _S +105
6 ”is written in the 1056th memory counted from the start address of the screen memory 8 and the data of the write register R3 is expressed by the above formula in the equation X ₀ =“ 3
Based on the calculation result “A _S +1184” obtained by substituting 2 ”, S =“ 7 ”, and n =“ 2 ”, it is written in the 1184th memory counted from the start address of the screen memory 8. For convenience of explanation, the above address is 10
It is displayed in hex. The method of calculating the write address differs depending on the configuration of the screen memory 8.

In the case of A = 1, 2, 3 (90 °, 180 °, 270 °) By the way, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 2B, the character pattern is the lower left corner of the character pattern at 0 ° rotation. The reference position P is set at the end, and 90 °, 180 °, 270 ° counterclockwise around the reference position P.
Each is defined as rotating.

Further, in this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The character pattern is rotated when it is read from the CG 6 and written in the read registers RA and RB.

Further, in this embodiment, the write register R
When writing the data read from R1, R2, and R3 to an arbitrary position of the screen memory 8, when the arbitrary coordinates of the screen memory 8 shown in FIG. Regardless of rotation, first write 16 bits upward from the write start coordinate,
Next, 1 bit upward from the coordinate to the right of the write start coordinate by 1 bit.
6-bit writing, ..., Finally, write start coordinate is 1
16 bits are written upward from the coordinate on the right side of 5 bits. It should be noted that the data referred to here is not the data of all 3 × 8 bits written in the write registers R1, R2, R3, but the actual data of the character pattern, that is, the dot data.

Therefore, in the case of A = 0 (0 °), there is no problem even if the reference position P and the writing start coordinate to the screen memory 8 are matched, but A = 1 (90 °) and A = 2 (180
°) and A = 3 (270 °), if the reference position P and the writing start coordinate to the screen memory 8 remain the same, as shown in FIG. Therefore, the above definition is deviated.

Therefore, when A = 1 (90 °), the writing start coordinate is shifted left 16 bits from the X coordinate data of the reference position P, and when A = 2 (180 °), the writing start coordinate is set as the reference. It is shifted 16 bits to the left of the X coordinate data of the position P and is shifted 16 bits below the Y coordinate data. When A = 3 (270 °), the write start coordinate is determined from the Y coordinate data of the reference position P. Must be shifted down 16 bits.

The subsequent processing is the same as in the case of A = 0 (0 °) described above.

The contents of the registers R1, R2 and R3 are written to the screen memory 8 respectively.
1, R2, R3 contents and a predetermined screen memory 8 (in the above case, 928th, 1056th, 118th, respectively)
This is performed by taking the logical sum of the contents of the memory at the fourth address) and storing the data after this operation in a predetermined screen memory. This is because the pattern data written before this is not erased by new writing.

Next, the process proceeds to step SP6, it is determined whether or not the writing process is completed, and if it is not completed, the address of the CG6 and the address of the screen memory 8 are updated (steps SP7 and SP8), and then the step is executed again. SP3 ~
Repeat the processing of SP6. In this case, as shown in FIG. 2B, when the character data corresponding to the horizontally written characters is written in the screen memory 8, the writing start coordinates of the second and subsequent character data to the screen memory 8 are: It becomes as follows depending on the rotation direction.

A = 0 (0 °) (X + 16 × (m-1), Y) A = 1 (90 °) (X-16, Y + 16 × (m-1)) A = 2 (180 °) Case (X-16-16 × (m-1), Y-16) A = 3 (270 °) (X, Y-16-16 × (m-1)) That is, as shown in FIG. become. Here, m represents the number from the beginning of the character.

After that, the determination in step SP6 is "YES".
The loop consisting of SP3 to SP8 is circulated until The arc-shaped arrow shown in FIG. 10 indicates the state of address update of CG6.

Next, when enlarging the character pattern, that is,
The process when M = 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The processing in this case is basically the same as in the case of M = 0 described above, but in order to double the character pattern, steps SP3, SP5, SP7, SP8 in FIG. Then, the processing of steps SP13, SP15, SP17 and SP18 is performed. The processing in these steps will be described below.

First, in the processing of step SP13, as shown in FIG. 13, each bit constituting the character pattern CP is doubly stored in the registers RA and RB. In this way, the double storage causes the character pattern CP to be doubled in the vertical (or horizontal) direction.

Next, in step SP15, as shown in FIG. 12B, the registers R1 to R3 are vertically connected in parallel and written in the corresponding area of the screen memory 8. In this way, by arranging the registers R1 to R3 in parallel, the character pattern CP is doubled in the horizontal (or vertical) direction. The figure shows the case where A = 0.
In the case of = 1, 2, 3, the way of taking the reference position P and the like are changed appropriately.

Further, the update of the address in step SP17 is performed in the order shown by the arrow in FIG.
The address update at 18 is every other address due to the parallel arrangement of the registers R1 to R3.

As described above, in this embodiment, parameters indicating the reference position coordinates, the orientation, and the character size of each print block are written in advance in the format register 7, and thereafter, the data in the format register 7 is written in the data. Based on this, the print pattern is automatically laid out.

When the distance between the thermal resistance elements that constitute the thermal head 11 and the distance between the feeds by the pulse motor are not the same, as shown in FIG. 14, depending on the printing direction of the characters,
The aspect ratio of the entire character changes slightly.

Further, the present invention is not limited to the configuration, the printing means, the processing method and the like of the above-mentioned embodiment, and can be applied to various modified examples as described below.

When a color printer is used as the printer, a parameter designating a color is also stored in the format register. For example, when the color parameter is C, black is designated when C = 0, red is designated when C = 1, blue is designated when C = 2, and yellow is designated when C = 3. The type of color printer may be either an inkjet type or a thermal type (multiple coloring layer system or multiple thermal transfer system). In this case, as many screen memories 8 as the number of colors are prepared, or a memory for storing a designated color is also used.

Addition of parameters that indicate the direction of character arrangement and parameters that specify the character spacing. For example, as shown in FIG.
A parameter for designating the vertical writing arrangement may be provided for the label. As described above, it is conceivable that the type and number of parameters may be appropriately adopted as needed, and the size or angle of characters is not limited to the embodiment.

CR for monitoring print format design
A T-display or a liquid crystal display panel may be provided. in this case,
Corresponding to the above, a color monitor may be used.

Frequently used print formats and standard print formats are configured so that each parameter can be preset and the print format can be set instantly by simply entering a code that identifies each format. Good.

As in the above-described embodiment, if the paper feed unit is of the cassette type, it may be configured to output a report such as sales data or inventory data.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, in the printer for printing the data of each printing item such as the product name and the price on the printing paper, the operating means for inputting the printing data and various commands,
With respect to the data register in which the data of each print item to be printed is stored and at least which position on the printing paper should be used as the printing reference for the data of each print item, X
Reference position designation parameter designated by coordinates and Y coordinate, and 0 °, 90 °, 180 °, 2 around this reference position
The format register composed of a readable / writable memory that stores a print direction designation parameter for instructing which rotation direction of 70 ° is to be printed, and the setting / changing of each parameter in the format register are described above. Data setting / changing means for carrying out based on the print specification data input from the operating means, a character generator in which character patterns are stored in advance, and a storage area corresponding to the print area on the paper are provided. Is divided into p-bits (p is a positive integer) and sequentially addressed, and a character pattern corresponding to the data of each print item is associated with the print direction specifying parameter from the character generator. Read in p-bit units in the order After elaborate come, the data written to the read register, by the number of bits is calculated based on the reference positional parameters and the number of bits p Y
The data written in the writing register should be written based on the reference position designating parameter, the printing direction designating parameter, and the order of characters by shifting by coordinates and writing to the writing register in units of p bits.
A write control unit that calculates the address of the screen memory and writes the data written in the write register to the address of the screen memory, and a printing unit that performs printing based on the data in the screen memory. Since all the printing programs (printing formats) expected to be desired by each user do not have to be created and stored in advance in order to satisfy the printing specifications desired by each user, memory is provided accordingly. Can be saved.

Also, many formats are unnecessary from the user's perspective,
There is no inconvenience that the print format selection operation is troublesome.

Further, even a user who desires a special print format other than the standard print format does not need to create a special print program (print format) for the user at the time of manufacturing the device and store it in the ROM. Since it is only necessary to operate the operation unit of the completed device to set the print format, it is possible to respond to the user's request extremely easily and quickly.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electrical configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining a printing process of the embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a printing area on a sheet, 4 to 6 are conceptual views showing the configurations of the format register 7, the screen memory 8 and the data register 9, respectively, FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing the appearance of the embodiment, and FIG. 8 is an operation of the embodiment. 9 is a pattern diagram showing an example of a character pattern in the character generator 6, FIGS. 10 to 13 are explanatory diagrams for explaining the processing operation of the same embodiment, and FIG. 14 is a paper sheet. FIG. 16 is a diagram showing the above printing example, FIG. 15 is a diagram showing another example of the character arrangement, and FIG.
FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the processing operation of the same embodiment. 3 ... CPU (data setting / changing means, writing control section),
6 ... Character generator, 7 ... Format register, 8 ... Screen memory, 9 ... Data register, 10 ... Printer section (printing section), 17 ... Operation section (operating means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A printer for printing data of each print item such as a product name and a price on a printing paper, and operating means for inputting print data and various commands, and data in which data of each print item to be printed is stored. With respect to the register and the data of each print item, at least which position on the printing paper should be used as the printing reference is the X coordinate and the Y coordinate.
Read / store a reference position designating parameter designated by coordinates and a print direction designating parameter designating which of 0 °, 90 °, 180 ° and 270 ° the printing direction is to be printed centered on this reference position. A format register composed of a writable memory, a data setting / changing means for setting / changing each parameter in the format register based on the print specification data inputted from the operating means, and a character pattern are stored in advance. And a screen memory having a storage area corresponding to the printing area on the paper, the storage area being divided by p bits (p is a positive integer) and sequentially addressed. And a character pattern corresponding to the data of each print item from the character generator to the print direction finger. After reading in p-bit units in the order corresponding to the parameters and writing in the p-bit reading register, the data written in the reading register is calculated based on the reference position designation parameter and the bit number p. It should be shifted in the Y coordinate by the number of bits and written in the writing register in units of p bits, and the data written in the writing register should be written based on the reference position designation parameter, the printing direction designation parameter, and the order of characters. , Calculating the address of the screen memory, the data written in the write register,
A printer comprising: a writing control unit that writes to the address of the screen memory; and a printing unit that performs printing based on the data in the screen memory.