JPS6391255A - Color word processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable an easy designation of colors and free setting of a color pattern by providing a print color region setting means which sets a region for each printing color and a printing control means which prints a dot pattern in a set color, a region of which the pattern belongs to. CONSTITUTION:A print color region setting means M1 which sets a region on a dot printing face for every print color and a printing control means M2 which controls in such a manner that a dot pattern is printed in a set color, a region of which the pattern belongs to, are provided. For this reason, if a region is set for every print color to a printing face by the print color region setting means M1, the printing control means M2 identifies a color to be used for printing, a region of which a dot pattern of characters to be arranged on a printing face belongs to, and prints each dot in a corresponding color. Consequently it is possible to designate colors easily and set a color pattern freely.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a color word processor that emits colored characters.

[Prior Art] In order to specify the color of a character in a conventional color word processor, an instruction as to whether or not to print each character in what color is inputted from a keyboard.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, with this method, the input is tedious and the color can only be specified for each character, so there is a limit to the freedom in designing the color pattern.

Therefore, the present invention has adopted the following configuration for the purpose of solving the above-mentioned problems.

[Means for Solving the Problems] That is, the gist of the present invention is to convert input character data into a dot pattern corresponding to the character data and to print dots according to the pattern, as illustrated in FIG. In color word processors for printing,
- Equipped with a print color area setting means M1 that sets an area for each print color on the printing surface, and a print control means M2 that controls the dot pattern to be printed in the set color of the area to which the dot pattern belongs. A color word processor featuring:

[Operation] When the print color area setting means M1 sets an area for each print color on the print surface according to the input instruction, the print control means M2 sets the dot pattern of the characters arranged on the print surface to the above-mentioned size. Based on the area, the color to be printed is determined, and each dot is printed in the corresponding color.

Next, the present invention will be explained in detail. The present invention is not limited to these, but includes various embodiments without departing from the gist thereof.

[Embodiment] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a color word processor that is an embodiment of the present invention. This color word processor includes a keyboard 1 for inputting print data, a liquid crystal panel 2 for displaying up to 24 characters of the print data input from the keyboard 1, and a thermal transfer printing device 4 for color printing the print data input from the keyboard 1. We are prepared.

In addition to the normal character keys, the keyboard 1 includes a color specification key 5 for instructing the start operation of specifying the area color for color printing;
Color-specific keys for instructing the printing colors for color printing, namely yellow key 6, magenta key 8, cyan key 1
0. Cursor keys to move the cursor displayed on the liquid crystal panel 2 up, down, left and right 11. A print key 12 for commanding the start of printing, a line feed key 14 for commanding line feed, etc. are provided (J).

The printing device 4 also includes a platen 18 to which printing paper 16 is attached and rotated by a step motor (not shown), a guide shaft 20 provided parallel to the platen 18, and a guide shaft 20 that is slidably supported on the guide shaft 20. A carriage base 22, a ribbon cassette 26 placed on the carriage base 22 and containing a film ribbon 24, and a drive shaft 30 that engages with the ribbon cassette 26 and is rotated by a step motor 28.
, a print head 32 for printing by thermally melting the film ribbon 24, and an optical sensor 34 installed adjacent to the print head 32.

A part of the timing belt 36 is engaged with the carriage base 22, and as the timing belt 36 is rotated by the step motor 38, the carriage base 22 also moves.

In addition, the film ribbon 24 has yellow Y, magenta M
, cyan C (hereinafter referred to as Y, M, and C, respectively).

) are sequentially applied to the same length as the width of the printing paper 16, and a bar code is provided at the beginning of each color.

This barcode is discriminated by the optical sensor 34 to perform color identification and determination of color boundaries. Three primary colors Y of the above colors,
M, C, and red R, green G, blue B, which are mixed in reduced color by overlapping and printing them.
Printing is performed in 4 colors of black BK and a total of 7 colors.

This printing device 4 uses a step motor 28 to move a predetermined color of an ink ribbon 24 to the position of a print head 32, prints dots by the print head 32, and then moves the ink ribbon 24 to a carriage base via a timing belt 36 using a step motor 38. By moving 22 in the horizontal direction in the figure, printing is performed sequentially.

When one line of printing is completed, the platen 18 is rotated and the printing paper 16 is fed by one line.

Next, the electrical system of this embodiment will be explained using the block diagram shown in FIG. Each of the above devices is driven and controlled by an electronic control unit rIt, 50 built into the color word processor to perform color printing.

As shown in FIG. 3, this electronic control device 50 includes a well-known CPU 51, a ROM 52 that stores control programs and data in advance, a readable/writeable RAM 53, and a one-line display on the liquid crystal panel 2 (up to 4 degrees A line memory 54 that stores character strings (characters) in a corresponding dot configuration.
etc., it is configured as a logic operation circuit. C,P
U51 performs various processes according to a program stored in ROM52. In addition, the line memory 54
is for storing characters and the like displayed on the liquid crystal panel 2 in the form of their dot patterns, and the panel drive circuit 60 is for displaying the contents of the line memory 54 on the liquid crystal panel 2 as they are. That is, the display on the liquid crystal panel 2 is performed using a so-called bitmap display method.

Next, the electronic control device 5 serves as the print color area setting means M1.
The process of specifying the print color performed by 0 will be explained using the flowchart of FIG. 4(A).

First, when the color word processor of this embodiment is powered on, flags and the like are initialized.

Next, it is determined whether or not the color specification key 5 is pressed (S
100), if not pressed, character processing as a word processor is performed (S110). If pressed, a request for inputting a starting point for area designation is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 2. , (S120). The starting point is set using a cursor displayed in dot units on the liquid crystal panel 2 when the color designation key is pressed.

The cursor may blink pixels on the liquid crystal panel, or a special cursor that moves pixel by pixel may be used.

Of course, a cursor that moves in units of multiple dots may also be used.

The movement of the cursor is determined by the input key (8130), and if the cursor key 11 is pressed, the cursor moves forward, backward, left, and right in dot units according to the instruction (81.4).
0). When the line feed (execution) key 14 is pressed, the cursor position at that time is set as the starting point and stored at a predetermined location in the RAM 53 (3150). If you press any other key, the system will wait for input again. Once the starting point position is set, a request for inputting the ending point is displayed on the liquid crystal panel 2 (S160).

Here, you can also position the cursor (S1
70, 5180) and the execution key, the end point is determined and the end point position is stored (S19e).

The starting point and ending point are set, for example, as a starting point P1 and an ending point P2, as shown in FIG. 4 CB).

The position of each point is represented by the number of pixel dots from a predetermined reference position PO. That is, the starting point P1 is at the vertical 01 dot and the horizontal b1 dot, and the ending point P2 is the vertical 01 dot and the horizontal di dot. At this time, the area is within a rectangle with diagonals of points PL and P2. The actual specified range on the liquid crystal panel 2 is as shown in FIG. 5(B).

Next, select the area color using color keys 6, 8. 10 (S200>).The input color code is stored in the RAM 53 adjacent to the data of the start and end points (S2
10). Next, a header indicating that the data in the RAM 53 is color area data is added (S220).
).

The above data is as shown in FIG. 4(C)! It is an F4 structure, and color area data (header, color code, position data) is stored from a specific address XXXX, and other color area data is also stored. Following this, text data in which a document is stored from a predetermined location YYYY is stored.

Next, using the above data, color printing processing performed by the electronic control device 50 as the printing control means M2 will be explained based on FIG. 5(A).

First, one line of print is read from the text data and developed as dot information in a buffer provided in the RAM 53 (8300). For example, if the dot pattern shown in FIG. 5(B) is to be printed, rA in the first line
6. Next, the buffer is compared with the color area to leave only the specific color area and erase information on other dots (S31).
0). That is, based on the positional data of the starting point P1 and the ending point P2 stored next to each color code, as shown in FIG.
Since the inside of the area shown in FIG. 5 has a different color from the outside of the area, first, the dots falling within the area are erased as shown in (1) of FIG. 5(C). In this state, the dot information is printed according to the dot information (S320), for example, in black as shown in Fig. 5 (S320).
・Printed as in (1) of C).

Next, whether or not there are other colors that are not printed is determined based on each color code and its area data (3330).
.

In the case of the first line, since the area is not printed, the first line is expanded into the buffer again (8300). Next, only the dots of a specific color are left, but this time, the area determined by the starting point P1 and the ending point P2 is left, and the others are erased (S310).

That is, the dots shown in (2) of FIG. 5(C) are printed over the black print as shown in (3) of FIG. 5(C) (8320).

At this point, the color data included in the one line has ended, so it is determined whether the next line exists in the text data (S340).

In the above example, there is a line for "CX Wow" and a line for "rYZ Pro", so after rotating the platen 18 and starting a new line (S350), the processing pointer is set to the next line (S350).
360), the process on the second line is performed again. Also, when the second line is completed, the third line is executed.

If all lines are completed in this way, the print line is considered to be finished, and
Finish the printing process. As a result, the input characters are printed in the color set for each area as shown in FIG. 5(D).

As described above, since this embodiment is configured, it is possible to express an arbitrary colored pattern in units of dots on printed characters or character strings.

In the embodiment described above, if the number of bytes of color area data is not fixed, the number of bytes of each color area data is included in the header. In addition, the color area specification was made into a rectangular shape with the starting point and end point as diagonals, but for example, you can set a circular color area by inputting the data of the center point and radius, or you can also create a circular color area, an elliptical shape, etc. , a rhombus, a triangle, etc. Further, the color area specification may also be made in units of a plurality of dots instead of in units of dots.

Since this embodiment is configured as described above, each color can be easily designated and the color pattern can be freely set.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the basic configuration of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a color word processor according to an embodiment, FIG. 3 is a block diagram thereof, and FIG. 4IVl(A) is a flowchart of a color area setting routine. 4(B) is an explanatory diagram of the setting operation, FIG. 4(C) is an explanatory diagram showing the data storage structure, FIG. 5(A) is a flowchart of the color printing routine, and FIG. B) is an explanatory diagram showing the dot pattern of printing, FIG. 5(C) is an explanatory diagram showing the procedure for printing by color, and FIG. 5(D) is an explanatory diagram showing the printing state after printing is completed. 1...Keyboard 2...LCD panel 4.
...Thermal transfer printing device N5...Color specification key 6...
Yellow key 8...Magenta key 10...
Cyan key 11...Cursor key 12...
Print key 14...Line feed key 50...Electronic control device

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A color word processor that converts input character data into a dot pattern corresponding to the character data and prints dots according to the pattern, further comprising a print color area that sets an area for each print color on the dot print surface. A color word processor comprising: a setting means; and a print control means for controlling the dot pattern to be printed in the set color of the area to which the dot pattern belongs.