JP2000158720A - Bar code printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform printing with various thicknesses by providing conversion tables each storing a conversion pattern of 1 raster for every type of bar code and generating a pattern by selecting a conversion table in correspondence with the information of a bar code to be printed when a bar code pattern is printed. SOLUTION: A bar code data 2 being delivered from a host unit 1 to a printer 3 comprising bar code characters and bar code types, a print region for determining the bar code print position and print size, and the print orientation is transferred to the bar code pattern generating section 5 of a print controller 3. A bar code pattern is generated at the bar code pattern generating section 5 according to the bar code data 2 using a pattern conversion table 8 and a describing information table 9 and stored in an output buffer 10. The bar code pattern is then delivered, in units of page, from the output buffer 10 to a printer 11 where a required bar code is printed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a system for generating a bar code pattern from bar code character data using a pattern conversion table. The present invention also relates to a method of generating and printing a barcode corresponding to a barcode type, a vertical barcode, and various bar widths without increasing the occupied memory.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, barcode printing has been realized by loading a barcode pattern font with an external character and printing it as a character. Alternatively, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 05-00855
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4 (1999) -1995, for a barcode type having a certain characteristic, all usable patterns for one raster are created and stored, and are sequentially selected and printed when a barcode character to be printed is input. In order to print a vertical barcode, a barcode pattern dedicated to vertical orientation is created by dividing the barcode pattern in the row direction as disclosed in JP-A-09-231338, or disclosed in JP-A-05-008454. As shown in FIG.
This was realized by rotating the image by 0 degrees and copying it in the column direction.

[0003]

The above-described bar code pattern font loading method requires a pattern corresponding to the attribute for printing the bar code, such as the bar code direction and the thickness of the bar. There is a drawback that as the type of barcode increases, the capacity of the occupied memory increases. Also, when printing a vertical barcode, restrictions such as the need to use a line size that matches the pattern, and rotation of the pattern or copying in the column direction, etc.
There is a problem that the performance is remarkably reduced as compared with the landscape printing.

An object of the present invention is to store a pattern without having to create and load a new pattern, even if the pattern has any attribute such as a barcode type, a printing direction, a bar width, and a bar height. It is an object of the present invention to provide a bar code printing apparatus capable of minimizing the occupied memory capacity of the printer and minimizing the performance in vertical printing without deteriorating the performance.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a pattern conversion table for storing a common vertical and horizontal conversion pattern for generating a barcode pattern from a barcode character. , A means for generating a horizontal barcode pattern, and a means for generating a vertical barcode pattern. In horizontal printing, the conversion pattern is used as information for creating data in the column direction, and in vertical printing, the conversion pattern is used as information for creating data in the row direction, thereby reducing the number of memory accesses during vertical printing. Vertical printing without lowering performance has been made possible. By making the conversion pattern common in the vertical and horizontal directions, there is no need to create a new conversion pattern when supporting the vertical direction. 1
By expressing the bar with one bit, the conversion pattern can be stored within 2 bytes per character, and by generating the barcode pattern when instructing the printing of the barcode, it is possible to minimize the occupied memory capacity. did. In addition, by having a drawing information table that stores drawing information for each barcode type, various types of barcodes can be printed in the same method. This includes the fact that the drawing information table has a plurality of bar widths so that various bar widths can be handled.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of barcode pattern printing according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an overall system diagram of a printing apparatus embodying the present invention. The print control device 3 includes a host device interface unit 4, a barcode pattern generation unit 5, a pattern conversion table 8, a drawing information table 9, and an output buffer 10. Barcode pattern generator 5
Is composed of a horizontal pattern generator 6 and a vertical pattern generator 7.

The bar code data 2 sent from the host device 1 to the printing device 3 includes a bar code character and a bar code type for determining a bar code pattern, a printing area for determining a bar code printing position and a printing size, and a bar. It consists of a printing direction that determines the printing direction of the code. The barcode data 2 is sent to the barcode pattern generation unit 5 via the host device interface unit 4. The barcode pattern generation unit 5 generates a barcode pattern by indexing the pattern conversion table 8 and the drawing information table 9 with the barcode data 2 and stores the barcode pattern in the output buffer 10. The output buffer 10 is a printer 11 for each page.
To print.

The pattern conversion table 8 and the drawing information table 9 are common tables in vertical and horizontal directions, and are created for each barcode type. The conversion pattern stored in the pattern conversion table 8 indicates adjacent black bars and white bars with one bit each. When the barcode pattern is determined by the combination of the thick bar and the thin bar such as Code39, the thick bar is set to "1", the thin bar is set to "0", the odd bits correspond to the black bar, and the even bits correspond to the white bar. Create to be. If the barcode pattern is determined by a combination of black and white bars, such as JAN code,
1 and white bars are represented by "0." Bars with different bar heights, such as post office barcodes, are divided according to their height to create several conversion patterns per character. 5, 6, 7
Shown in The conversion pattern is stored in the memory in hexadecimal notation in the figure.

The drawing information table 9 stores several types of combinations of the number of effective bits, the bar width, and the gap width. As the bar width and the gap width, the maximum bar width and the gap width that fit in the area size are selected according to the printing area of the barcode data 2 specified by the host device 1. The combination of the bar width and the gap width may be sent together with the barcode data 2 from the host device 1. At this time, the bar width and the gap width sent from the host device 1 are given priority over the bar width and the gap width stored in the drawing information table 9. FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of the drawing information table 9. As the printing direction, one of “horizontal”, “vertical from top to bottom”, and “vertical from bottom to top” is specified. The vertical pattern generation unit 7 generates both a vertical pattern from top to bottom and a vertical pattern from bottom to top.

FIG. 2 shows the flow of processing from the reception of bar code data from the host device to the completion of generation of one bar code pattern. Horizontal pattern generation processing 21
3 is shown in FIG. 3, and details of the vertical pattern generation processing 22 are shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 shows the flow of generating a barcode pattern corresponding to one character of a horizontal barcode.
9 "1" is shown as an example. When printing a horizontal barcode pattern, the pattern conversion table 8 and the drawing information table 9 to be used are selected according to the type of the barcode data 2. The selected pattern conversion table 8 is indexed by the barcode character “1” of the barcode data 2 and the corresponding conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the bar code pattern of Code 39 is composed of a combination of a thick bar and a thin bar, the conversion pattern 31 represents a black bar for odd bits and a white bar for even bits, and “1”.
Indicates a thick bar, and “0” indicates a thin bar. Next, a thick bar width, a thin bar width, and a gap width to be used are obtained from the selected drawing information table 9. The drawing information table 9 stores several sets of the thick bar width, the narrow bar width, and the gap width as one set. As the bar width to be used, a maximum width in which a barcode composed of the received barcode character string can be drawn in an area indicated by the print area of the barcode data 2 is selected. When the bar width and the gap width are specified in the barcode data 2, the specified numerical values are selected. FIG.
Then, thick bar 6 dot, thin bar 2 dot, gap width 2
It is assumed that a combination of dots is selected. The horizontal bar code pattern is generated by the horizontal pattern generator 6.
The horizontal pattern generator 6 reads the first bit “1” of the conversion pattern 31. Since the first bit is a black bar and the conversion pattern "1" is a thick bar, "black" for 6 dots of the thick bar width obtained from the drawing information table 9 is written in the horizontal direction. Next, the second bit “0” of the conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the second bit is a white bar and the conversion pattern "0" is a thin bar, "white" is written in the horizontal direction for two dots of the narrow bar width selected from the drawing information table 9. The third bit “0” of the conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the third bit is a black bar and "0" in the conversion pattern is a thin bar, "black" is written in the horizontal direction for two dots of the narrow bar width. The fourth bit “1” of the conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the fourth bit is a white bar and "1" in the conversion pattern is a thick bar, "white" is written in the horizontal direction for 6 dots of the thick bar width.

The fifth bit "0" of the conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the fifth bit is a black bar and "0" of the conversion pattern is a thin bar, "black" is written in the horizontal direction for two dots of the narrow bar width. The sixth bit “0” of the conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the sixth bit is a white bar and "0" of the conversion pattern is a thin bar, "white" is written in the horizontal direction for two dots of the narrow bar width. The seventh bit “0” of the conversion pattern 31 is read. Since the seventh bit is a black bar and the conversion pattern "0" is a thin bar, "black" is written in the horizontal direction for two dots of the narrow bar width. The 8th bit “0” of the conversion pattern 3 is read.
Since the eighth bit is a white bar and "0" of the conversion pattern is a thin bar, "white" is written in the horizontal direction for two dots of the narrow bar width. The ninth bit “1” of the conversion pattern 31 is read.
Since the third bit is a black bar and the conversion pattern "1" is a thick bar, "black" is written in the horizontal direction for 6 dots of the thick bar width. The ninth, which is the number of significant digits shown in the drawing information table 9
By writing up to bits, one raster pattern 32 of one barcode character is generated. By repeatedly writing one raster pattern 32 in the vertical direction by the height of the print area specified by the barcode data 2, a rectangular barcode pattern 33 of one barcode character is generated. The generated barcode pattern 33 is printed, and a print result 34 is obtained. Although not shown in the figure, when a plurality of barcode characters of the barcode data 2 continue, a rectangular barcode pattern is generated after generating one raster pattern of all barcode characters. Subsequent to one raster pattern 32 generated by one barcode character, "white" for two dots, which is the gap width read from the drawing information table 9, is written. The selected pattern conversion table 8 is indexed by the next barcode character, the corresponding conversion pattern is read, and the pattern is written in the same manner as the first character. The writing of the barcode pattern and the gap is repeated until the barcode character of the barcode data 2 ends. A rectangular barcode pattern is generated by repeatedly writing one raster pattern of all the barcode characters thus generated by the height of the print area specified by the barcode data 2 in the vertical direction.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of generating a barcode pattern corresponding to one vertical barcode character from top to bottom.
Code 39 “1” is shown as an example. The portrait orientation includes a top-to-bottom portrait orientation and a bottom-to-top portrait orientation, and is specified by the printing orientation of the barcode data 2. The pattern conversion table 8 and the drawing information table 9 to be used are the same tables as in the horizontal orientation (FIG. 3), and the selection of the table and the index of the conversion pattern 31 are performed in the same manner as in the horizontal orientation. The barcode pattern in the vertical orientation from top to bottom is generated by the vertical pattern generation unit 7. When printing a vertical barcode from top to bottom, the vertical pattern generation unit 7 first reads one bit from the first bit of the conversion pattern 31. Since the first bit is a black bar, "black" is written in the horizontal direction by the height of the print area of the barcode data 2, and the black raster data 4 is written.
1 is generated. Furthermore, the first bit conversion pattern “
Since 1 "is a thick bar, black raster data 41 is repeatedly written in the raster direction for 6 dots, which is a thick bar width. Next, the second bit of the conversion pattern 31 is read out. The second bit is a white bar and the conversion pattern" Since 0 "is a thin bar, white raster data 42 is generated by writing" white "for a designated height in the horizontal direction, and white raster data 42 is repeatedly written in the vertical direction for two dots, which is a narrow bar width. The generation and writing of the raster data is repeated by the number of significant digits shown in the drawing information table 4 in the same manner as in the generation of the directional barcode pattern, thereby generating a vertical rectangular pattern 43 from the top to the bottom of one character. The generated barcode pattern is printed to obtain a print result 34. Although not shown, when a plurality of barcode characters of the barcode data 2 continues, A gap pattern is written following the barcode character rectangular pattern 43. Since the gap is "white", white raster data is generated at the height of the print area specified by the barcode data 2, and the gap width is set in the raster direction. White raster data is repeatedly written for two dots, a conversion pattern corresponding to the bar code character of the second character is read out, and a pattern is generated in the same manner after the first character. Until the end of the bar code character, the writing of the bar code pattern and the writing of the gap are repeated to generate a rectangular pattern.

In the vertical direction from top to bottom and the vertical direction from bottom to top, the reading start position and reading direction of the conversion pattern 31 are different. When vertical printing from top to bottom is specified in the printing direction of the barcode data 2, as described above, the reading start position of the conversion pattern is the first bit, the reading direction is the right direction, and the barcode data is read. If the barcode character group designated by 2 is “1, 2, 3”, barcode patterns are created in the order of “1”, “2”, “3” from the first character “1”. When vertical printing from the bottom to the top is specified in the printing direction of the barcode data 2, the reading start position of the conversion pattern 31 is the least significant bit of the effective digit, the reading direction is the left direction. If the designated barcode character group is “1, 2, 3”, patterns are generated in the order of “3”, “2”, “1” from the last character “3”. The least significant bit position of the significant digit is determined by the number of significant digits in the selected drawing information table 9. In FIG. 4, it is the ninth bit. By performing conversion from the bit at the read start position to the first bit, a vertical rectangular pattern from the bottom to the top of one character is generated. When a barcode pattern including a plurality of barcode characters is generated, a white raster pattern corresponding to a gap size of 2 dots is written between rectangular patterns corresponding to one barcode character. By adopting such a pattern generation method, a barcode pattern can be generated with the same number of access times as the memory access number when generating a vertical barcode even when generating a vertical barcode. Time performance can be maintained.

By providing a plurality of combinations of usable bar sizes in the drawing information table 9, it becomes possible to draw bar codes having different bar widths depending on the designated print area. The bar width can also be specified from a host device.

Not only Code 39 but also NW7, Industrial 2of5, Matrix 2of5, ITF, and other barcodes whose barcode pattern can be represented by a combination of thick and thin bars can be printed in the same manner. The conversion pattern of Industrial 2of5 is
As shown in FIG. 5, the space between bars may be defined as a thin bar. Since the conversion pattern of the ITF needs to create a conversion pattern in which adjacent odd-numbered characters are black bars and even-numbered characters are white bars, as shown in FIG. 7, the conversion pattern corresponds to one barcode character. By storing bar information in even-numbered bits and “0” in odd-numbered bits of the conversion pattern, synthesis of the conversion pattern may be performed by shift and bit OR processing.

Since the bar code pattern of JAN is composed of a combination of a black bar and a white bar, as shown in FIG. 6, the conversion pattern 31 is such that "1" represents a black bar and "0" represents a white bar. By doing so, a barcode pattern can be generated by the above-described method.

In the post office bar code, "1" of the conversion pattern 3 is a black bar and "0" is a white bar in the same manner as JAN, and is further divided vertically into three parts for upper, middle and lower parts. Three conversion patterns are used for one barcode character. At the time of landscape printing, the pattern conversion table is indexed with a barcode character, and the upper conversion pattern, the middle conversion pattern, and the lower conversion pattern are read. From these conversion patterns, an upper raster pattern, a middle raster pattern, and a lower raster pattern are generated, and a rectangular pattern is created by repeating the height pattern from the upper pattern in order. The height and bar width of the post office barcode are fixed for the resolution of the printer regardless of the designation of the print area from the host device. At the time of vertical printing from the top to the bottom of the post office barcode, the bit data is read out in the order of the lower conversion pattern, the middle conversion pattern, and the upper conversion pattern to generate a bar pattern. The first bit is read from the three conversion patterns, a bar pattern is generated in the same manner as in FIG. 4, and the process is repeated for the bar width, and then the second bit is processed. In the case of vertical orientation from bottom to top, the conversion pattern for the upper part, the conversion pattern for the middle part, and the conversion pattern for the lower part are read in order from the least significant bit of the number of significant digits. As described above, even with a post office barcode having a pattern with a different height for each bar, a barcode pattern can be generated by the above-described method.

[0020]

According to the present invention, the occupied memory capacity for barcode printing is 1 at a resolution of 240 bytes / inch.
The maximum is 2 bytes per barcode character. Compared with the conventional barcode font loading method, the maximum bar code character is reduced by 766 bytes. Also, barcode printing of various thicknesses and various barcode printings can be supported without increasing the occupied memory capacity. Also, the performance does not decrease in portrait printing as compared to landscape printing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an entire system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of a barcode pattern generation process.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of one horizontal barcode pattern generation.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of generating one vertical barcode pattern.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration diagram 1 of a conversion pattern.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a configuration diagram 2 of a conversion pattern.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a configuration diagram 3 of a conversion pattern.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a drawing information table.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1: Upper device 2: Barcode data 3: Print control device 4: Upper device interface unit 5: Barcode pattern generator 6: Horizontal pattern generator 7: Vertical pattern generator 8: Pattern conversion table 9: Drawing Information table 10: Output buffer 11: Printer 21: Horizontal pattern generation processing 22: Vertical pattern generation processing 31: Conversion pattern 32: Horizontal barcode 1 raster pattern 33: Horizontal rectangular barcode pattern 34: Print result 41: Black Raster pattern 42: White raster pattern 43: Vertical (up-down) rectangular barcode pattern

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference)

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A bar code pattern having a conversion table for storing one raster conversion pattern for each bar code type. When a bar code pattern is printed, the conversion table is selected according to the bar code information to be printed. A bar code printing device for generating a bar code. 2. A conversion pattern of a bar code type represented by a combination of a thick bar and a thin bar has a common black bar and white bar.
A bar code printing device characterized by being represented by bits. 3. A bar code printing apparatus characterized in that the conversion pattern is common to the vertical and horizontal directions, and the conversion pattern of the bar code type represented by a combination of a black bar and a white bar represents adjacent bars by 1 bit. 4. A bar code printing apparatus, wherein a horizontal bar code pattern is generated and printed by using a conversion pattern as pattern creation information in a column direction when printing a horizontal bar code. 5. A bar code printing apparatus for generating a vertical bar code pattern by using a conversion pattern as row direction pattern creation information when printing a vertical bar code. 6. A bar code printing apparatus characterized in that it has a drawing information table for each bar code type so that it can be rewritten into a pattern corresponding to various bar widths and gap widths.