Abstract: A printing apparatus and method can control vibration generated resulting from the movement of a carriage to be small even when a desired printing pattern, etc., may change. The carriage is moved based on a plurality of drive conditions, each specifying a different moving distance of the carriage, and a drive condition by which vibration generated at that time becomes not larger than a predetermined magnitude is set as a drive condition of the carriage when printing an image on a printing medium.

Abstract: A printing control system and method for an inkjet printer, wherein a carrier equipped with one or more inkjet cartridges is driven while the line feeding is being executed, and the line printing is initiated after the line feeding of the paper is completed. The printing control method may comprise a number of steps to determine whether a line printing by the ink cartridges has been completed, and if so, executing the line feeding. The printing control method may further comprise estimating an expected length of time TE from a time point TC where the carrier initiates a next movement, to a time point TI where the next line printing is initiated, and comparing a length of feeding time TRX remaining until the line feeding is completed with the expected length of time TE, and driving the carrier if the length of remaining feeding time TRX becomes less than or equal to the expected length of time TE.

Abstract: A printing apparatus and control method facilitating the development of application software that can be used with different printers when the horizontal and vertical pitches of their respective mechanical transports vary. Based on a received base pitch calculation command, the printing apparatus calculates and stores a conversion coefficient for converting the minimum physical pitch values of the printer mechanism to virtual base pitch values. Thereafter, the printing apparatus executes motion commands and directs relative motion of the head and/or selected recording medium transport in accordance with this virtual pitch value.

Abstract: There is provided a printer comprises a first type group having a first font; a second type group having a second font; a first read only memory in which a space traveling amount corresponding to each type of the first type group has been stored; a second read only memory in which a space traveling amount corresponding to each type of the second type group has been stored; and a microprocessor which selects the 1st read only memory when the 1st type group is used, thereby allowing the propotional spacing operation corresponding to each type of the 1st type group to be performed, and which selects the 2nd read only memory when the 2nd type group is used, thereby allowing the proportional spacing operation corresponding to each type of the 2nd type group to be performed. Since the invention can be constituted by a simple hardware, by merely adding this hardware to a conventional printer such as an electronic typewriter, the fine proportional spacing can be executed for each type of various kinds of fonts.

Abstract: A serial printer comprises a movable carrier, a print head mounted on the carrier, sliders mounted to either a fixed member of the printer or the carrier and selectively slidable to a plurality of positions to select a desired print mode, a sensor mounted to the other member and movable relative to the sliders when the carrier is moved so as to sense the position of the sliders, and an initial condition control system for changing print modes in response to the position of the sliders as sensed by the sensor.

Abstract: In a printing device capable of executing printing operation in a bold face print mode, provided are means for controlling a carriage so as to be stopped in a predetermined period of time before the first printing operation is executed so that an inconvenient vibration of the carriage is attenuated, and means for executing a plurality of printing operations included in a bold-face print after the vibration is sufficiently attenuated.Thus, qualities of the printed characters in the bold-face print mode are extremely uniform with each other.

Abstract: In printing devices which are to print automatically readable script in particular great value is placed on an entirely accurate and clearly readable printing script because otherwise the reading devices recognize erroneous characters or the documents are rejected. In order to produce easily readable characters and in order to increase the life of the corresponding type wheels it is proposed either to move the document (8) by means of a step motor (SM) with micro-step control (MP, D/A.sub.1, D/A.sub.2, V.sub.1, V.sub.2) and to arrange the characters, which are to be arranged flush right or flush left, according to convention, in the center (FIG. 2A) and to bring about the flush right or flush left printing by means of the micro-step control. In addition, it is suggested, according to the invention, to also control spoke type wheels (1) with different pitches by means of a type wheel drive motor (M) provided with a micro-step control (MP, D/A.sub.1, D/A.sub.2, V.sub.1, V.sub.2).

Abstract: In order to print well balanced underlines under a character string printed at an expanded print pitch, the disclosed printing apparatus comprises an expanded pitch setting means for setting an expanded pitch mode for providing an expanded space corresponding to a predetermined times of set print pitch between neighboring characters, and an underline print control means for controlling to print one or more underline in the expanded space between a preceding printed character and a succeeding character to be printed, when the data of the succeeding character is entered in both of the underline mode and the expanded pitch mode.

Abstract: A character pattern generator for a dot-matrix type printer. A storage device stores first dot pattern data for fixed pitch printing and second dot pattern data for proportional printing where the proportional printing dot pattern data corresponding to a character differs from the corresponding characters fixed pitch print data. A first address location pointer indicates the addresses of the fixed pitch dot pattern data in the storage device. A second address location pointer indicates the addresses of the proportional printing data in the storage device. A selector coupled to the storage device and the first and second address location pointers receives a character code signal and an attribute signal indicative of one of the fixed pitch and proportional pitch printing modes and supplies the character code signal to either the first or the second address location pointer in accordance with the attribute signal.

Abstract: A printer including a gap changeover device for moving a print head and a platen relative to each other and thereby adjusting a head gap between the print head and a recording medium on the platen. A switch is provided to produce a signal where the recording medium includes a local portion whose thickness is greater than that of the remaining portion. A gap control device is responsive to the signal from the switch, to change a normally established head gap to a larger value. At the same time, a speed control device is operated to lower the printing speed, according to the larger head gap.

Abstract: According to the present invention, setting contents of a specified mode are selected in accordance with positions to which a printing head shifts, and the setting contents are set by operating switches in those positions. A switch for shifting the printing head and a setting switch serve as switches for executing other functions peculiar to a printer.

Abstract: A method of improving printer throughput by selecting a print velocity based on the characteristics of a line to be printed. Incorporated into an application program are all available printing velocities to be used for printing. As each line to be printed is buffered, it is analyzed. Based on the analysis, an optimum velocity is selected by the program for causing a printing of the line.

Abstract: In a method for operating a serial dot matrix printer having a print head that is reciprocated along a first direction and stopped for performing bi-directional printing on a medium that is moved in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction, correction amounts for correcting the bi-directional printing alignment are stored in a memory device. The desire correction amount is then selected and stored in a battery-backed-up memory. The bi-directional printing then is performed using the desired correction amount stored in the battery-backed-up memory.

Abstract: A correction buffer for a typing system in which the correction buffer has a group of records, each record corresponding to an incremental distance on the medium which is printed upon. The records in the correction buffer contain information concerning characters entered through a keyboard by a typist including designations of entered characters and character attributes.

Abstract: A document processing system has a pitch key for generating character pitch information, an MPU for counting the character pitch information to set auto mode data in an auto mode selection memory RAM, a wheel sort memory RAM for storing printing pitch information of a printing wheel loaded in the system, a display unit for displaying the auto printing pitch setting mode and the detected printing pitch in a combination of different display patterns, and a display controller for controlling the display unit in response to the data read out from the RAMs under the control of the MPU.

Abstract: A printer for printing both standard pitch and condensed pitch characters which includes print hammer faces which have a single wide section for standard pitch characters and a double wide section for printing condensed pitch characters. Using this hammer face one obtains the advantage of high speed when printing standard pitch characters and yet one is able to print condensed pitch characters with the same printer.The face of each hammer is divided into two sections. The first section of each hammer face is identical to the hammer face in a conventional single width hammer. The second section of each hammer face spans the width of two condensed pitch characters.The hammers are divided into two groups. The first group of hammers has the single width section on the top of the hammer face and the second group of hammers has the single width section on the bottom of the hammer face.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a printing device having a carriage and a serial-impact printing unit carried by the carriage, wherein characters are printed on a recording medium by the printing unit after the carriage has been moved to and positioned at predetermined printing positions in a printing direction.

Abstract: A pattern pitch adjustment is applied to dot matrix pattern data as it is output from a CPU to a printer. The data is transferred from a DMA to the printer bit by bit, and the number of synchronizing signals output from the printer for each bit is counted to decide picture element timing. During a given period of time after transferring each data pattern, a waiting signal is applied to the DMA so that space picture element data is fed to the printer.

Abstract: A dot pattern generating system extracts dots with a predetermined interval with respect to a scanning direction from successive dots of a dot information pattern which is generated from a character generator, and varies a dot interval of the dot pattern information with respect to the scanning direction, so that dot pattern information is obtained after predetermined dots are extracted from the successive dots which is printed or displayed as a scaled down character with an arbitrary dot interval.

Abstract: A printer capable of operating in a bidirectional printout mode by converting a print code to pattern data and using a print head in which print elements are arranged in a plurality of arrays. A buffer control is provided for controlling in a ring structure entry and retrieval of pattern data into and out of an image buffer. A detachable font cassette stores the pattern data and data associated with print configurations. A pattern data store stores print pattern data in blocks for each of the print element arrays.

Abstract: A dot matrix printer comprises a head comprising a plurality of printing elements, a motor for moving the head, an oscillation source for supplying pulses for driving the motor, and varying means for varying the spacing between dots printed by the head at an integer ratio corresponding to the driving pulses put out from the oscillation source.

Abstract: A microprogrammed control apparatus for dot matrix serial printers and related printing method which allows increased horizontal resolution of the printing matrix and therefore the printing quality consistent with the restriction that no printing element can be actuated before a previous energization of any printing element has been completed. The increase of the horizontal resolution is obtained by using a character description matrix with high resolution and logic circuits responsive to binary configurations read out from such matrix. In a preferred alternative, the increase of the horizontal resolution is obtained by using a "compressed" character description matrix containing a plurality of printing patterns, one for each of the columns where printing has to be performed (hereinafter "column to be printed") and a corresponding plurality of codes, each related to a printing pattern and representative of the distance/time interval between the column to be printed and the previous column to be printed.

Abstract: In a serial printer in which character patterns for one line are image-developed in a line buffer and are printed, when the number of dots along a subscanning direction of a dot pattern obtained by expanding a standard character exceeds that of a printing head along the subscanning direction, the expanded character pattern is divided into a plurality of zones along a scanning direction, and the dot pattern for each zone is image-developed in the line buffer. Since a relative distance between a development start position and a printing head position for each character in one line is stored in advance, if character patterns are sequentially image-developed from one having a smaller relative distance, a character string including different dot structures can be printed in a desired format.

Abstract: A dot printing device includes a head having a plurality of head pins, a dot driver for selectively energizing the head pins according to dot data, a character generator, and a data processing unit for causing N-bit dot data constituting designated character data to be generated sequentially by the character generator according to input character designation data, and supplied to the head driver. The data processing unit causes a plurality of N-bit dot data corresponding to the input character designation data to be generated from the character generator according to input character designation data and italic printing data, and supplies the lower bit of the N-bit dot data and (N-1) bits with predetermined delay times with respect to the lowest bit to the head driver.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printing unit, an operation panel including a plurality of switches, a first memory, and a control unit which stores the print control data corresponding to the states of the switches of the operation panel into the first memory when a power source is turned on, changes the print control data in this first memory in accordance with an external command, and drives the printing unit in accordance with the input print data and with the print control data in the first memory, thereby printing the input print data. A second memory is provided to store the switch data corresponding to the states of the switches.

Abstract: An intercharacter space processing apparatus for use in a printer, comprises a receiver for receiving a print signal, a memory for storing character codes received by the receiver, a dot space control unit responsive to an intercharacter dot space signal received by the receiver for inserting a prescribed dot space signal between the character codes stored in the memory, so that the printer will print characters on a print surface based on information stored in the memory, first means for producing a signal when a dot space area on the print surface according to the dot space signal inserted by the dot space control unit exceeds a dot space area represented by a space code given by the print signal, and second means responsive to the signal from the first means for converting the dot space signal into the code and storing the space code into the memory.

Abstract: A system and method for controlling printing to allow to obtain a long vertical line which is continuous even if a reduction in height of font is produced due to the occurrence of font change between the two consecutive print lines is provided.

Abstract: For use with a matrix printer, a method for printing dot columns at uniform spacing regardless of irregular print carrier motion, the column spacing selected, and the use of a low resolution pulse source. The pulse source generates control pulses at intervals representing carrier movement through a given distance greater than any selected dot column spacing. As disclosed the method calculates the distances from a control pulse to the possible printing positions between two control pulses, according to the column spacing selected, and the known distance between pulses. Also, the time between control pulses is measured and used with the known distance between pulses to calculate the carrier velocity. From the carrier velocity and the distance from a control pulse to printing positions between control pulses, the times of energization of the print wires to effect printing at the uniformly spaced printing positions are calculated.

Abstract: In a printer system in which hammers mounted along a shuttle assembly which reciprocates relative to a print paper are selectively energized to impact the paper and print dots thereon, the dot density is made variable by an encoder system responsive to the position of the shuttle assembly as it traverses a linear path of motion. The encoder system includes a decoder for generating a succession of fence post pulses as the shuttle assembly reaches each of a succession of different positions along the linear path of motion and circuitry for generating a succession of hammer firing pulses in response to and having a desired phase relationship with the fence post pulses. The hammer firing pulses may occur at a frequency the same as or different from the frequency of the fence post pulses to provide a desired print density. A stored initial offset value is used to initially establish the desired phase relationship between the hammer firing pulses and the fence post pulses.

Abstract: An electronic typewriter comprising keys 12a and an electronic control system 26 for causing a print wheel 16 to print corresponding characters at successive horizontal positions. A register 86B stores and continuously updates its storage of the last plurality of characters printed. When an error is made, the typist can backspace to the error, automatically recall the incorrect character from the register and erase it by restriking that character via a correction ribbon 28. Actuating a halfspace mode key 24 advances the print wheel's horizontal position by one-half the ordinary space, thereby moving out of normal registration to permit inserting extra characters. Upon such actuation of the halfspace key, the register's contents are cleared so that characters entered in normal registration cannot be used while the print wheel is in an offset location. Characters typed while in halfspace mode are stored in the usual manner.

Abstract: A business machine including a frame, a paper support mechanism and a printing mechanism for successive character printing on paper supported from the paper support mechanism is provided. One of the mechanisms is supported from the frame for guided incremented shifting relative to the other mechanism whereby successive printed characters made on paper supported from the paper support mechanism by the printing mechanism will form a line of printed characters extending along the paper in a predetermined path.

Abstract: An apparatus for dot-matrix printing with proportional character spacing utilizes a conventional character generator for generating characters with fixed spacing in which a matrix storage area of equal size is assigned to each character, regardless of the actual width of the character, and has an advance control for a printer carriage drive for advancing the drive in increments corresponding to each single column of the storage area, the apparatus having a control unit operable in a state for generating proportional character spacing as well as in a state for generating characters with fixed spacing, and a printing control unit for operation in a state for generating proportional character spacing which executes advance increments for occupied columns in the storage areas and assigns a space advance of a predetermined width to the total of the number of empty columns between two adjacent characters in the storage areas.

Abstract: A marking machine for marking metal nameplates, tags or the like. The marking machine employs a work table supported on a carriage which is moveable into contact with a marking wheel to perform a printing operation. Improved advancing means are provided for the work table utilizing a feed pawl link having a pair of pivot points. One pivot point is connected to a feed link while the second pivot point is connected to a drag link moveable between upper and lower stops in a carriage casting. A bottom pivot point of the drag link is provided with a friction clutch on a pivot connected otherwise to a stationery portion of the machine. An improved feed rack is further provided which is polygonal in cross-section and may have different spaced teeth on each side for selective spacing. Half-spacing adjustment means are provided whereby the feed rack may be moved axially a half-space to change the spacing on the work table.

Abstract: An electronic system is disclosed for use in adjusting the spacing between columns of print produced by impact printers and the like. The system adjusts the spacing electronically by use of digital logic which varies the timing between high current pulses which, in turn, drive hammers in the impact printers. With this system, timing of the high current pulses is delayed to increase the spacing and timing is advanced to decrease the spacing.

Abstract: A control circuit for use in conjunction with dot matrix printers which includes a command word gate which is connected to a data source to receive data signals, the command word gate generating a control circuit enabling signal in response to reception of a predetermined coded command word signal from the data source. A density latch gate is connected to the data source to receive density code signals and to the command word gate and generates a density code output signal in response to reception of the command word signal and density code signals received from the data source. Connected to the density latch gate is a printer signal generating circuit with produces an output signal having a frequency proportional to the density code signal.

Abstract: A marking machine for marking metal nameplates, tags or the like. The marking machine employs a work table supported on a carriage which is movable into contact with a marking wheel to perform a printing operation. Improved advancing means are provided for the work table utilizing a feed pawl link having a pair of pivot points. One pivot point is connected to a feed link while the second pivot point is connected to a drag link moveable between upper and lower stops in a carriage casting. A bottom pivot point of the drag link is provided with a friction clutch on a pivot connected otherwise to a stationary portion of the machine. An improved feed rack is further provided which is polygonal in cross-section and may have different spaced teeth on each side for selective spacing. Half-spacing adjustment means are provided whereby the feed rack may be moved axially a half-space to change the spacing on the work table.