Incremental printing of symbolic information – Ink jet – Controller
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-28
2001-12-11
Nguyen, Thinh (Department: 2861)
Incremental printing of symbolic information
Ink jet
Controller
C358S001900, C347S041000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328406
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording method, and particularly to an image recording method of recording an upper band and a lower band of a thermal head so as to overlap each other and recording record data corresponding to a plurality of dots in such a superimposition recording range in the upper and lower bands in distributed form.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a thermal transfer printer is often used as an output device such as a computer, a word processor or the like due to reasons such as the quality of recording, low noise, low cost, ease of maintenance, etc.
In such a commonly-used thermal transfer printer, a sheet of paper is supported forward of a platen and a carriage is equipped with a thermal head with a plurality of heating or thermal elements formed thereon. While the thermal head is being moved forward and backward alternately along the platen together with the carriage in a state in which an ink ribbon and the paper are interposed between these thermal head and platen, the ink ribbon is unreeled and the heating elements of the thermal head are selectively energized based on record information to generate heat, whereby ink of the ink ribbon is partially transferred to the paper to record an image such as desired characters or the like onto the paper.
Further, such a thermal transfer printer is accompanied by a problem that a range recorded by one scanning of the thermal head and a range recorded by the next scanning of the thermal head excessively approach each other, thereby causing a so-called black line, and the ranges are separated from each other in reverse, thereby causing a so-called white line.
In order to prevent the occurrence of such black and white lines, the range (upper band) recorded by one scanning of the thermal head and the range (lower band) recorded by the next scanning of the thermal head have heretofore been recorded so as to overlap each other.
FIG. 20
schematically shows such a conventional recording method. When the number of heating or thermal dots for the thermal head is 240 dots, for example, four dots, i.e., a 237th dot, a 238th dot, a 239th dot and a 240th dot in the upper band, and a first dot, a second dot, a third dot and a fourth dot in the lower band are recorded so as to be superimposed on one another. Further, record data corresponding to the four dots are distributed to the upper and lower bands.
In such a case, the record data have heretofore been distributed to the upper and lower bands for each one column in a superimposition recording range (corresponding to four dots) while dots in the direction of the arrangement of the respective heating elements of the thermal head (in a column direction) are being examined. Namely, when record data exist in all four dots in a first column as shown in
FIG. 20
, first and second two dots of the four dots are distributed to the upper band, and third and fourth two dots thereof are distributed to the lower band. In a second column, a first dot is distributed to the upper band, and third and fourth two dots are distributed to the lower band. Further, in a third column, a first dot is distributed to the upper band, and second and fourth two dots are distributed to the lower band.
Thus, the recording of data in the superimposition recording range has heretofore been carried out by suitably distributing the record data for the dots to the upper and lower bands for each column respectively and driving each individual heating element of the thermal head, based on these distributed record data.
However, the conventional thermal transfer printer is accompanied by a problem in that since the record data for the dots are distributed in each column, the quantity of record data to be processed is extremely large and a processing speed becomes slow. Therefore, when, for example, the time required to energize each heating element of the thermal head is controlled and the diameter of each recording dot is changed to thereby perform such recording as it is necessary to handle a large amount of record data as in the case of the execution of multi-tonal recording or the like, a problem arises in that the processing of record data becomes insufficient and a recording speed is reduced, thus making it impossible to perform high-speed recording.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the aforementioned points. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an image recording method capable of greatly increasing a record data processing speed and performing high-speed recording.
In order to achieve the above object, an image recording method according to the invention of the present application is characterized in that a process for successively examining dots in a raster direction corresponding to a scanning direction of a thermal head, adding continuous flags to the dots when record data exist in the dots, and distributing record data for continuous dots supplied with the continuous flags to upper and lower bands when the record data do not exist therein, is carried out, and record data for some dots in another raster direction are examined on the basis of record data for continuous dots in a raster direction, which are already subjected to a distributing process, and the same distributing process as a process for distributing the continuous dots in the raster direction set as the reference is effected on record data for the continuous dots in another raster direction without condition when the examined record data are identical to the record data for the dots in the raster direction set as the reference.
Owing to the adoption of such a method, since the process for adding the continuous flag to each of the dots lying in the scanning direction of the thermal head when the record data exists in the dot and distributing the record data for the continuous dots supplied with the continuous flags to the upper and lower bands only when no record data exists therein, is carried out, the record data distributing process is simplified in the way of performing its process, throughput or the quantity of data to be processed can be greatly reduced, and processing can be performed easily and promptly as compared with the case where the record data distributing processes are executed for each column as in the prior art.
Further, the record data for some dots in another raster direction are examined on the basis of the record data for the continuous dots in the direction of the raster already subjected to the distributing process. Thus, when each examined record data is identical to the record data for the dots in the raster direction set as the reference, the same distributing process as the process for distributing the continuous dots set as the reference is effected on the record data for the continuous dots in another raster direction without condition. It is therefore possible to reduce the quantity of record data to be subjected to a distributing process much more and perform an easy and prompt process.
The invention of the present application is further characterized in that some dots examined in another raster direction with respect to the raster direction set as the reference are set as two dots respectively corresponding to at least a final dot of the continuous dots set as the reference and dots adjacent thereto and judged as having no record data, which are determined in accordance with the regularity of a dither matrix for image information.
Owing to the adoption of such a method, a distributing process can be effected on continuous dots in a raster direction set as the reference by simply examining record data for minimum dots in another raster direction, thus making it possible to reduce the quality of record data to be processed.
Further, the invention of the present application is characterized in that the raster direction set as the reference, of the respective raster directions in the superimposed recording range is determined in consideration of whether a screen angle
Alps Electric Co. ,Ltd.
Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione
Nguyen Thinh
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