JP2713707B2 - Character output device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a character output device for outputting graphic characters such as characters, kana, and numbers to a medium such as paper, and more particularly to a print quality test by outputting a test pattern. It relates to a character output device. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a character output device such as an ink jet printer, a laser beam printer, or a thermal transfer printer sometimes outputs and prints a test pattern for a print quality test. When such a print quality test is performed, a predetermined test pattern is generally read from a storage unit or the like according to a test instruction, and output and printed on a recording medium. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in this type of conventional apparatus, there is an inconvenience that a test print cannot be instructed and executed from a host apparatus as a data source. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and has as its object the purpose of instructing test printing by a command from a data source, and for transmitting a character that has been transferred before the end command is received. An object of the present invention is to provide a character output device capable of performing printing based on a code and two types of character output control. [Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above object, the character output device of the present invention comprises:
Determining means for determining the content of the command including whether or not the command transferred from the data source is a test print instruction; obtaining means for obtaining size information of the paper loaded in the apparatus; Determining means for determining font information including a character size and the number of characters corresponding to the size information, and determining if a command transferred from the data source is a test print instruction by the determining means. A test pattern suitable for the paper size is generated and output based on the font information determined by the means, and when the information transferred from the data source is determined to be an end command by the determination means, Output control means for generating and outputting a pattern based on the character information transferred from the data source. . [Operation] In the present invention, it is determined whether the information from the host is a test print instruction or an end command (FIG. 5, S6 and S13). If the test print instruction is given, the information is based on the paper size information (S7). The output is executed based on the character information constituting the test pattern, and if it is determined that the command is the end command, a pattern desired by the user to be output is generated and output based on the character code transferred so far. Therefore, in the present invention,
There are two systems for the start of output: a test print suitable for the paper size based on receiving the test print instruction, and an image print based on the character code transferred so far from the end command. Usability is improved. [Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, a is an instructing means for instructing the output of a print test pattern, b is a storage means for storing character information constituting the print test pattern and a unit size of each character information in advance, and c is a print test pattern. Recording means for outputting to a recording medium such as paper, and d is a detecting means for detecting and outputting the size of the recording medium in the recording medium. and e, a control unit that determines the output amount of the print test pattern from the output of the detection unit d and the above-described unit size read from the storage unit b in accordance with the instruction of the instruction unit a. A print test pattern corresponding to the size of the medium is read from the storage means b and output to the recording means c. FIG. 2 shows a circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a test instruction key for instructing a print quality test, and 2 denotes a data source such as a host computer for outputting codes of graphic characters (graphic characters) and commands (also referred to as control characters or functional characters). The data source 2 outputs a print quality test command according to the key input of the test instruction key 1. Graphic characters include kana, kanji, numbers, and symbols (interval characters, special characters), and commands include transmission control commands, format control commands, device control commands, information separation commands, and special control commands. Reference numeral 3 denotes a document processing unit including components 4 to 13, which processes a graphic character code or a command code and outputs print data. 4 is a CPU that controls the entire device
(Central processing unit), and internally has a ROM (Read Only Memory) 5, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 6, and the like. The ROM 5 previously stores control procedures (programs) and data executed by the CPU 4 as shown in FIG.
Is used as a work area for CPU4. 7 is an input buffer for temporarily storing code data from a data source, 8 is a command analysis register for analyzing commands, 9 is a paper information table storing paper size data, and 10 is a character corresponding to a graphic character code. This is a character pattern generator storing pattern information. For example, the input buffer 7 is composed of a RAM, and the command analysis register 8, the paper information table 9 and the character pattern generator 10 are composed of a ROM. The test pattern information is stored in the character pattern generator 10. 11 is a page buffer for storing the graphic character code and position information read from the input buffer 7 in page units, 12 is an image buffer in which the pattern information converted by the character pattern generator 10 is developed in an output image, and 13 is an image buffer A printer interface unit that outputs the contents of 12 as print data. Reference numeral 14 denotes a printer which prints print data input through the printer interface 13 on paper, and various printers such as an ink jet printer and a laser beam printer can be applied. Reference numeral 15 denotes a paper size sensor that detects the size of paper on a paper feed tray (cassette) set in the printer 14 and in a usable state, and outputs a paper size signal to the CPU 4. FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the sheet information table 9 of FIG. In this figure, 21 is a paper size name that can be set in the printer 14, 22 is the horizontal length dimension data of each sheet, and 23 is the vertical length dimension data. CPU4 is the paper size name corresponding to the paper size signal from sensor 15.
The paper information table 9 is searched using the reference address 21 as the reference address. For example, if the paper size signal indicates A4 (A4 size), the paper information table 9 indicates "29" as the horizontal dimension data.
7 "and" 210 "as vertical dimension data. Note that the dimension data uses a unit of mm in this example. FIG. 4 shows the contents of the test information stored together with the character pattern information in the character pattern generator 10 of FIG. In the figure, 31 is the name of each character (font information) to be output as test information, 32 is the width dimension data of each character, and 33 is the area where the height dimension data is stored. When outputting the test information, the CPU 4 reads out the data of the character font to be used and the width and height of the character from the character pattern generator 10 and designates the data based on the paper size data read from the paper information table 9 described above. The number of character test patterns that can be expanded in the recording area of the sheet size of the paper is calculated, and the test pattern information is written to the page buffer 11 based on the calculated value. Next, an example of the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When a transmission start signal is input from the data source 2, the CPU 4 stores the character information from the data source 2 in the input buffer 7, and upon completion of the storage, starts this program. First, RA
The flag F used for the determination when terminating the test information in M6 is set to zero (step S1), and it is determined whether or not the code read from the input buffer 7 character by character is a command (step S2, step S2). S3). If the command is a command, command analysis is performed using the command analysis register 8 (step S5). If the command is a test command for instructing a print quality test (step S6), a sensor 15 for detecting the paper size of the current paper feed tray is used. The vertical and horizontal size data X _s and Y _s corresponding to the paper size signal is extracted from the paper information table 9 (step S7), and the data X _s and Y _s and the character pattern generator 10 calculates the number of characters output expandable test pattern on the paper on the current paper feed table by the resulting character width X _w and a character height Y _h from the test information data (step S8), and according to the calculated number of characters character The test pattern (code) read from the pattern generator 10 is written into the page buffer 11 for one page (step S9). After this development is completed, the test pattern (code) of the page buffer 11 is referred to by referring to the character pattern generator 10.
Is converted into character pattern information and developed in the image buffer 12 (step S10). When the development is completed, the stored contents of the image buffer 12 are output to the printer 14 through the printer face unit 13 and printed out on paper (step S1).
1). Next, the flag F is reset to 1, and the process returns to step S2. Next, if the end command is read from the input buffer 7, the process proceeds to steps S2 → S3 → S5 → S6 → S13, and the step S13 is affirmatively determined, and the next step S15 is also affirmatively determined, thus ending this processing. It will be. On the other hand, if the command read from the input buffer 7 is not a command, it is a graphic character code such as a character or a symbol, so a negative determination is made in step S3, and the flow advances to step S4 to write the code into the page buffer 11. Returning to step S2, the process is continued. If the command read from the input buffer 7 is a command other than the test command and the end command, for example, a command for page break, line feed, etc., the process proceeds to step S2 → S3 → S5 → S6 → S13 → S14. , Execute a predetermined process corresponding to the command,
It returns to step S2. As described above, when the code is stored in the page buffer 11 and the end command is finally read from the input buffer 7, the flag F remains zero unless a test is performed. → S5 → S6 → S13 → S15.Step S15 is negative, so the next step S15
Proceeding to 16, the contents of the page buffer 11 are converted into pattern information using the character pattern generator 10, and the
After the development to 12, the process proceeds to step S17, where the contents of the image buffer 12 are output to the printer 14 and printed out on paper. In this embodiment, the print quality (image quality) is inspected by printing a font pattern of characters and symbols having a meaning as a test pattern on paper.
Image data such as a check pattern, a hatching pattern or a dot pattern may be stored in a character pattern generator in advance and output as a test pattern. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, for output start, test print suitable for the paper size based on receiving the test print instruction and transfer from the end command to the present Since there are two systems, that is, printing of an image based on a character code that has been performed, usability is improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a basic configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a circuit configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of the information table, FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the contents of test information in the character pattern generator of FIG. 2, and FIG. 5 is an embodiment of the present invention in FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an operation example. 1 ... test instruction key, 2 ... data source, 3 ... document processing unit, 4 ... CPU (central processing unit), 5 ... ROM (read only memory), 6 ... RAM (random access memory) 7 Input buffer 8 Command analysis register 9 Paper information table 10 Character pattern generator 11 Page buffer 12 Image buffer 13 Printer interface 14 ... printers, 15 ... sensors.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] Determining means for determining the content of the command including whether or not the command transferred from the data source is a test print instruction; obtaining means for obtaining size information of the paper loaded in the apparatus; Determining means for determining font information including a character size and the number of characters corresponding to the size information; and determining if the command transferred from the data source is a test print instruction by the determining means. Means for generating and outputting a test pattern suitable for the paper size based on the font information determined by the means; and determining that the information transferred from the data source is an end command by the determining means, Output control means for generating and outputting a pattern based on the character information transferred from the data source. Character output device to be.