Typewriting machines – Including control of format and selection of type-face by...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-04
2003-11-11
Eickholt, Eugene H. (Department: 2854)
Typewriting machines
Including control of format and selection of type-face by...
C400S065000, C400S076000, C400S621000, C358S001200, C358S001110
Reexamination Certificate
active
06644873
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method which are capable of printing characters of a desired size on a print medium while feeding the print medium contained therein.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, printing apparatuses are widely known which print characters of desired sizes on a print medium, such as a tape, for producing labels. In these printing apparatuses, when characters in horizontal writing in which characters are arranged in horizontal or lateral rows as in ordinary alphabetical writing are printed such that the direction of length of each character string is parallel to the direction of feed of the tape, the size of printable characters and the number of rows of characters corresponding to the size of printable characters are predetermined according to the width of the tape. Therefore, naturally, if the size of characters is increased, the number of printable rows of the characters is reduced, whereas if the size of characters is decreased, the number of printable rows of the characters is increased. That is, each print line width depends on the width of the tape and the size of characters.
Now, as shown in
FIG. 19
, tapes produced by the above printing apparatuses are sometimes affixed to paper, such as notebook paper or the like, which is provided with ruled lines at intervals of a space (hereinafter referred to as “ruled line spacing”) defined by a predetermined standard. In such a case, however, the print line width on the tape and the ruled line spacing on the notebook are rarely coincident with each other, resulting in the degraded appearance of the page bearing the tape, and further, for instance, when the user desires to enter notes in association with data printed on the tape, he often has to write characters across the ruled lines, which makes it difficult to add the notes to the page.
To eliminate the above inconveniences, an attempt can be made to cause the print line width on the tape to coincide with the ruled line spacing of the ruled lines on the notebook. However, the print line width depends on the tape width and the size of characters, as described above. Therefore, this necessitates a troublesome and time-consuming work of calculating back an appropriate tape width and character size from the ruled line spacing of the notebook. Moreover, actually, it is required to allow for a margin (interlinear spacing defined as a spacing between adjacent concatenations of character bodies in a direction perpendicular to a direction of extension of character strings), and hence it is very difficult to cause the print line width on the tape to coincide with the ruled line spacing of the notebook.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a printing apparatus and a printing method which are capable of setting a print line width on a tape such that the print line width is adapted to the ruled line spacing defined by a predetermined standard.
To attain the above object, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a printing apparatus which is capable of printing characters of a desired size on a print medium while feeding the print medium contained therein.
The printing apparatus according to the first aspect of the invention is characterized by comprising:
print line width-setting means for setting a print line width such that the print line width is adapted to a ruled line spacing defined by a predetermined standard; and
printing means for printing the characters in the print line width set by the print line width-setting means.
To attain the above object, according to a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a printing method of printing characters of a desired size, comprising the steps of:
setting a print line width such that the print line width is adapted to a ruled line spacing defined by a predetermined standard; and
printing the characters in the set print line width.
According to these printing apparatus and printing method, it is possible to set the print line width on a print medium in a manner adapting the print line width to a ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard so as to print the characters within the print line width set by the print line width-setting means. Therefore, for instance, when the print medium printed with the characters is affixed to a ruled sheet of a notebook, the print line width of the print medium and the ruled line spacing of the ruled sheet match each other, thereby making it possible to cause the resulting ruled sheet to have an attractive appearance. Also when notes or memos are entered to comment on contents printed on the print medium, the characters can be prevented from being written across the ruled lines on the notebook since the print line width on the print medium and the ruled line spacing on his notebook match each other. This enables the user to make the contents of the notebook orderly and attractive.
It should be noted that the term “print line width” is used throughout the specification and appended claims to represent a width occupied or to be occupied by a line of characters printed or to be printed on a print medium. It is not required that the line is actually printed on the print medium. The term “ruled line spacing” is used throughout the specification and appended claims to mean a distance from one ruled line to the next, in other words, a width or height of a section defined by a pair of ruled lines adjacent to each other. Further, the term “ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard” is used to mean any of various ruled line spacings, such as “7 mm for Ruled lines A (ordinary horizontal ruled line)”, “6 mm for Ruled lines B (medium horizontal ruled line)”, and “5 mm for Ruled lines C (thin horizontal ruled line)” defined by Japanese Industrial Standards (JIS) as well as ruled line spacings defined by the organization standard of “Japanese Paper Product Industry Association”. Further, when there are standards on Ruled lines defined by the government of a country or a corporation, ruled line spacings defined by the standards as well are included in the category of the above “ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard”.
Preferably, the print line width-setting means includes means for setting the print line width not by designating a numerical value but by designating a type of the ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard.
Preferably, the step of setting a print line width includes the step of setting the print line width not by designating a numerical value but by designating a type of the ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard.
According to these preferred embodiments, the print line width is set not by designating a numerical value but by designating a type of ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard. More specifically, the print line width can be set not by designating a numerical value, such as “7 mm” or “6 mm”, but by designating a type of ruled line spacing, such as “Ruled lines A (ordinary horizontal ruled line)” and “Ruled lines B (medium horizontal ruled line)” in JIS, and hence when it is desired to cause the print line width of the print medium to match the ruled line spacing of the “Ruled lines A”, the print line width can be set with ease even if the size of the ruled line spacing of the “Ruled lines A” is unknown to the user.
Preferably, the print line width-setting means includes means for designating a size of one print line width as an integral multiple of one ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard.
Preferably, the step of setting a print line width includes the step of designating a size of one print line width as an integral multiple of one ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard.
According to these preferred embodiments, it is possible to set the size of a width of one print line to an integral multiple of one ruled line spacing defined by the predetermined standard. Therefore, for instance, when a large characters s
Eickholt Eugene H.
Hogan & Hartson LLP
Seiko Epson Corporation
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