Claims
- 1. In character printing a method of formatting the characters to be printed into binary signals to act as control signals for an on/off print mechanism comprising the steps of
- storing signals representing the characters to be printed in a signal storage member according to a scheme related to the desired appearance of those characters on a print media;
- formatting and storing binary signals to control the printing of a portion of each character across a print width until the binary signals for an entire print width are stored, and
- directing the on/off printing operation of a print medium's print width by serially accessing the stored binary signals for that print width and using those signals to control the on/off mechanism; and
- repeating said steps of formatting, storing, and directing until all characters have been printed.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said formatting step comprises the generation of binary signals for a slice of each character, one character at a time and wherein the storing of each character slice is performed prior to the formatting of the next character.
- 3. The method of claim 2 wherein each slice comprises an 8 bit wide mapping of on/off print control signals.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the binary signals are stored in 8 bit wide storage buffer in parallel byte fashion and wherein these binary signals are serially accessed to control said printing operation across a printing scan width one bit at a time until an entire scan width is printed so that the 8 bit wide binary signals control 8 printing scans across said media.
- 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the storing step is accomplished using two 8 bit wide storage buffers so that while one buffer is sending control signals to control the print operations a second buffer is loaded with formatted signals for the next eight scan widths.
Parent Case Info
This is a division, of application Ser. No. 376,884, filed May 10, 1982 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,542 issued 10/9/84.
US Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
4153940 |
Grier et al. |
May 1979 |
|
4231096 |
Hansen et al. |
Oct 1980 |
|
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
376884 |
May 1982 |
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