CN110626078B

CN110626078B - Thermal printing control method and thermal recording device

Info

Publication number: CN110626078B
Application number: CN201910997977.8A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 赵哲
Original assignee: Weihai Zhewen Intelligent Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Weihai Zhewen Intelligent Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2019-10-21
Filing date: 2019-10-21
Publication date: 2020-09-22
Anticipated expiration: 2039-10-21
Also published as: CN110626078A

Abstract

The invention provides a thermal printing control method and a thermal recording device, wherein the method comprises the steps of S1, respectively reading and recording data information corresponding to required black-and-white binarization information and gray scale tuning information through the thermal recording device; s2, extracting the maximum and minimum values from the data values of the gradation tuning information having the bit depth, converting "0" to the minimum value and "1" to the maximum value in the black-and-white binary information; s3, reorganizing data, and storing one printing data with bit depth in each printing point in the area range { (1, 1), (N, M) } and storing the data which is gray level tuning information in the designated area range { (N +1, M +1), (N + N1, M + M1) }; s4, converting the data formed in the S3 into printing data, and further forming a plurality of printing sequences; and S5, printing and outputting. The method can realize that the black-white binary information with the recording requirement and the gray scale harmony information of the designated area are printed simultaneously in one printing process of the same thermal medium.

Description

Thermal printing control method and thermal recording device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to the field of thermal printing technologies, and in particular, to a thermal printing control method and a thermal recording apparatus.

Background

The present thermal printing and recording apparatus generally includes a thermal print head for supplying printing energy, a plurality of thermal heating element units arranged linearly in a row at a predetermined resolution on the thermal print head, and a print head driving chip for controlling each heating element unit. The heat-sensitive medium for image or character information recording is applied with a certain pressure through a printing rubber roller made of elastic materials, and moves in a friction contact manner along the direction vertical to a heating line of the heat-sensitive printing head, the heating unit generates joule heating effect by applying corresponding pulse power to the heating unit of the heat-sensitive printing head, and the printing electric energy is converted into heat energy, when the heat-sensitive medium is in contact with the heating unit under the rotation driving of the printing rubber roller, the heat energy generated by the heating unit is transferred to the surface of the heat-sensitive medium, and the heat-sensitive material on the surface of the heat-sensitive medium is heated to generate chemical reaction or physical change, so that a visual image or character information with the concentration corresponding to the printing energy is formed on the heat-sensitive medium.

In recent years, thermal printing applications have become more and more widespread as the level of manufacturing and process technologies related to thermal printing apparatuses and thermal media, and the level of thermal printing control technologies and the like have been increasing. Meanwhile, the printing quality of thermal recording is also increasing, and gray scale images, character records, and the like having better density matching expressive force can be realized without being limited to basic black-and-white binary images or character records.

However, for the purpose of implementing the aforementioned black-and-white binarization and grayscale harmony image or character recording, especially for the case that the black-and-white binarization information and the grayscale harmony information of a designated area exist on the same thermal medium at the same time, because the data format of the black-and-white binarization information is different from the data format of the grayscale harmony information, and the difference between the thermal printing control methods of the two recording methods exists, a general thermal recording apparatus can only implement one recording method in one printing process of the same thermal medium, that is, all the printing data is converted into black-and-white binarization printing, so that the grayscale harmony information is lost, and the image is distorted; or all the print data is converted into the gray scale harmonious print, so a data algorithm for converting the binary image with higher load into the gray scale image is needed, except that the operation cost is increased, and the converted image or the adopted conversion algorithm also generates image distortion, so that the simultaneous printing and recording of the black-white binary and the gray scale harmonious image or characters which are required by the above cannot be realized.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems in the prior art, the invention provides a thermal printing control method and a thermal recording device, so as to simultaneously record image or character information with black-white binarization and gray scale harmony in one printing process of the same thermal medium.

In order to achieve the above object, an aspect of the present invention provides a thermal printing control method including the steps of:

step 1, reading data of printing information: respectively reading and recording data information corresponding to the required black-and-white binarization information and gray scale tuning information by a thermal recording device;

wherein, the black-white binarization information is in the area range of { (1, 1), (N, M) } and a binarization image data matrix with the format of '0' or '1' is stored, and the printing width N and the printing length M are stored;

the gradation tone information is stored in the area range of { (1, 1), (n1, m1) } in a gradation tone information data matrix having a bit depth format, a printing width of n1, and a printing length of m 1;

the printing position of the gray scale harmony information is specified by the coordinates (n, m) in the black and white binarization information, namely, the printing position and the printing area range of the gray scale harmony information required for recording are specified in the area range { (n +1, m +1), (n + n1, m + m1) } of the black and white binarization information;

step 2, data transformation: extracting a maximum value Dmax and a minimum value Dmin from data values of the gray-scale tuning information, and converting "0" or "1" data in the black-and-white binarized information into a data format having the same depth as the gray-scale tuning information, wherein "0" is converted into the minimum value Dmin of the data values in the gray-scale tuning information, and "1" is converted into the maximum value Dmax of the data values in the gray-scale tuning information;

step 3, data recombination: and (3) recombining the black-and-white binary data and the gray scale harmony data after the data transformation in the step (2) and the designated printing area data of the gray scale harmony information in the step (1) into a whole: the whole printing area range is { (1, 1), (N, M) }, and printing data with bit depth is stored in each printing point, wherein the data of the gray tone information is in the designated area range of { (N +1, M +1), (N + N1, M + M1) };

step 4, converting the data formed in the step 3 into printing data, and further forming a plurality of printing sequences: converting printing data stored in each printing point in the whole printing area after data recombination into a group of printing data, wherein each printing point of each printing line corresponds to a heating element unit in the main printing direction of a thermal printing head in the thermal recording device; each group of printing data corresponding to each printing point of each printing line forms Ln printing sequences, each printing sequence comprises a plurality of data bits, each data bit corresponds to each printing point one by one, and a data bit of 0 represents that the printing point corresponding to the data bit is not heated during printing; a data bit of 1 indicates that the printing point corresponding to the data bit is heated during printing;

and step 5, printing and outputting: sequentially reading Ln printing sequences formed in the step 4 in a printing cycle of one printing line by a printing driving control part of the thermal recording device, controlling the thermal printing head to print once every time one printing sequence is read, and controlling the thermal printing head to print the Ln-th time until the Ln-th printing sequence is read, thereby completing the printing cycle of one printing line; and then, printing the next printing line until the whole printing is finished.

Preferably, in the step 1, the recording position and range of the gradation tuning information do not exceed the area range of the black-and-white binarized information, i.e., 0. ltoreq.n, N + N1. ltoreq.n and 0. ltoreq.m, M + M1. ltoreq.m.

Preferably, in the step 4, the print data stored for each print dot in the entire print area after the data rearrangement is converted into a set of print data by a linear data conversion method.

Preferably, the recording requirements of the gray scale tuning information of a plurality of designated areas can be simultaneously realized within the range of the black-and-white binary information recording area on the same thermal medium.

The scheme of the invention has the advantages that the thermal printing control method can realize simultaneous printing of black-and-white binary information required for recording and gray scale harmony information of a designated area on the same thermal medium, can keep consistency of visual density of the whole information record, effectively reduces storage and calculation load of image or character information processed by a thermal recording device, and improves printing speed and printing quality.

The invention also provides a thermal recording device, which comprises a thermal printing head for providing printing energy, a printing driving control part and a thermal medium conveying part, wherein the thermal printing head comprises a plurality of continuous heating element units linearly arranged according to a preset resolution, the linearly arranged heating element units are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of the thermal medium, and the thermal recording device adopts the thermal printing control method to print the thermal medium so as to simultaneously print black-and-white binary information with a recording requirement and gray scale harmonization information of a specified area in one printing process of the same thermal medium.

Drawings

Fig. 1 shows a system configuration diagram of a thermal recording apparatus according to the present invention.

Fig. 2 shows a schematic diagram of a thermal head drive control logic of the thermal recording apparatus according to the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a printing control method of a black-and-white binarized image or text in the prior art.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a method of controlling printing of a gradation-adjusted image or text in the related art.

Fig. 5 shows a schematic diagram of recording information in the embodiment.

Fig. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a print proof in the embodiment.

Fig. 7 shows a schematic diagram of data before processing of recorded image or text information in the embodiment.

Fig. 8 shows a schematic diagram of data after transformation and reorganization of recorded image or text information data in the embodiment.

Fig. 9 is a diagram showing print data for recording image or text information in the embodiment.

Reference numerals: 1-thermal printing head, 10-heating unit, 11-printing head driving chip, 2-printing driving control part, 3-thermal medium conveying part, 30-printing rubber roller and 4-thermal medium.

Detailed Description

The following further describes embodiments of the present invention with reference to the drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, the thermal recording apparatus according to the present invention comprises a thermal print head 1 for providing printing energy, the thermal print head 1 comprises a plurality of heating element units 10 arranged linearly according to a certain resolution, the heating element units 10 arranged linearly are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the conveying direction of a thermal medium 4, the thermal recording apparatus further comprises a printing drive control part 2 and a thermal medium conveying part 3, when the thermal medium 4 contacts the heating element units 10 passing through the thermal print head 1 under the rotation drive of a printing rubber roller 30 of the thermal medium conveying part 3, the printing drive control part 2 drives the heating element units 10 to generate heat energy according to the image or character information data and control logic to be printed, and the heat energy is transmitted to the surface of the thermal medium 4 in a contact manner, the thermal material on the surface of the thermal medium 4 is heated to generate chemical reaction or physical change, thereby, a visual image or character information having a density corresponding to the print energy is formed on the thermal medium 4.

As shown in FIG. 2, the thermal head drive control logic of the thermal recording apparatus according to the present invention is represented by (R) wherein N heating element units 10 are arranged linearly in the thermal head 1₁、R₂、R₃……R_N) A print head driving chip 11 is also provided, and the input logic control signal thereof comprises a DATA sequence signal DATA (namely a printing sequence) for printing at a high level and closing at a low level, and each heating element unit 10 is controlled by an independent driving loop MOS switch; the alternate pulse logic CLOCK signal CLOCK is used to store the DATA sequence signal DATA in the shift register (SHIFT REGISTER) of the printhead driver chip 11. In a printing period of one line, the timing pulse logic signal LATCH latches the DATA sequence signal DATA in the shift register into a LATCH register (LATCH REGISTER); when the STROBE logic control signal STROBE is at an active level and a DATA bit corresponding to a certain heat generator unit 10 in the DATA sequence signal DATA is "1", the driving circuit MOS switch of the heat generator unit 10 is in an Open (ON) state, the printing power supply VH and GND are connected, and the heat generator unit 10 generates heat and the temperature rises to realize printing. The above-described logic control signals are output from the print drive control section 2 in the thermal recording apparatus according to the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a printing control method of a black-and-white binarized image or text in the prior art. Data information of black-and-white binary images or characters is generally configured by binary storage and output, data 1 outputs a high level, a driving loop MOS switch of a corresponding heating element unit 10 is in an open state, and the heating element unit 10 generates heat; data 0 is outputted at a low level, and the drive circuit MOS switch of the corresponding heat generating element unit 10 is in a closed state, and the heat generating element unit 10 does not generate heat.

In the printing period of each printing line, a binary DATA sequence signal DATA is input into a shift register of a printing head driving chip 11 by an alternate pulse logic CLOCK signal CLOCK, and when a timing pulse logic signal LATCH is effective, the DATA sequence signal DATA in the shift register is latched into a LATCH register; when the gating logic control signal STROBE is at an active level (active at a low level in the figure), and a DATA bit corresponding to a certain heating unit 10 in the DATA sequence signal DATA is "1", the MOS switch of the driving loop of the heating unit 10 is in an open state, and the Ton time is kept to satisfy the requirement of printing and energizing energy, the corresponding heating unit 10 is continuously energized to heat for a Ton time period, and then the gating logic control signal STROBE is turned off, so that the heating unit 10 does not heat, and the heating unit 10 is de-energized to cool for Toff time, thereby completing the printing period of one line. The printing control method is characterized in that: in each printing cycle of a printing line, the DATA sequence signal DATA binarized into black and white is input only once, so that the MOS switch of the driving circuit of the heating element unit 10 is turned on and off once, and dot matrix images of black (printing) and white (non-printing) are correspondingly formed and output. Obviously, the printing control method of the black-and-white binary image or the characters cannot realize the printing control of the gray-scale harmonic image with the printing requirement.

Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a method of controlling printing of a gradation-adjusted image or text in the related art. Data information of each printed dot of a gradation harmony image or text is generally in a data storage and output configuration having a bit depth, for example, 256-step gradation data having a bit depth of 8 bits, and data of each printed dot corresponds to a printing density from 0 to 255 from deep to light.

The data of each printing point is controlled by the printing drive in the printing period of each printing lineThe data transformation and data rearrangement of the section 2 will form Ln print sequences: d_L-1、D_L-2、D_L-3……D_L-Ln. Each printing sequence comprises a plurality of data bits, each data bit corresponds to each printing point one by one, for example {1, 1, 1, 0, … 0}, N data bits are counted, and N printing points are corresponding to one by one; then, the first printing sequence is input into a shift register of the printing head driving chip 11 by an alternate pulse logic CLOCK signal CLOCK, and when a sequential pulse logic signal LATCH is effective, the printing sequence in the shift register is latched into a LATCH register; when the gating logic control signal STROBE is at an active level (active at a low level in the figure), and a data bit corresponding to a certain heating unit 10 in the printing sequence is "1", then the driving loop MOS switch of the heating unit 10 is in an open state, keeps Ton time, and the corresponding heating unit 10 is continuously electrified and heated for a Ton time period, and then the gating logic control signal STROBE is turned off, so that the heating unit 10 does not generate heat, and the heating unit 10 is powered off and cooled for Toff time, thereby completing the printing period of the printing sequence. And so on, and the printing period of the Ln printing sequences is completed in sequence, so that the printing period of the whole line is completed. The printing control method is characterized in that: in the print cycle of each print line, the print data of the gradation tone information forms Ln print sequences, and therefore, the drive circuit MOS of the heat generating element unit 10 is switched on and off the power switch Ln times to form an image output corresponding to the gradation density of the gradation tone data.

As shown in fig. 3 and 4, it is obvious that the printing process of the black-and-white binary information is simple, and the processing and printing speed is high, but the black-and-white dot matrix chart cannot represent the harmonious density information of the gray-scale image; however, although the printing process of the gradation image is complicated and the data calculation load on the print drive control unit 2 is large, the gradation density information of the gradation image can be realized.

As shown in FIG. 5, the present invention is directed to a recording area range { (1, 1), (N, M) } on the same thermal medium 4 in which a black-and-white binary information printing area for recording requests and a gradation matching information printing area { (N +1, M +1), (N + N1, M + M1) } of a specified area are present at the same time, wherein 0. ltoreq. N, N + N1. ltoreq. N and 0. ltoreq. M, and M + M1. ltoreq.M. For example, as shown in fig. 6, a schematic diagram of a print sample includes black-and-white binarized text and barcode information, and a grayscale harmonized image.

The thermal printing control method according to the present invention includes the steps of:

and step 1, reading the data of the printing information. The information comprises images and/or text.

Data information corresponding to black-and-white binarization information and gray scale tuning information required for recording is read by a thermal recording device. Normally, the black-and-white binarization information stores a binarization image data matrix with a format of "0" or "1" in an area range of { (1, 1), (N, M) }, and the printing width N and the printing length M thereof. In the present embodiment, the printing width N of the monochrome binary information corresponds to N printing dots in the main printing direction of the thermal recording apparatus.

The gradation tone information is stored in the area range of { (1, 1), (n1, m1) } in a gradation tone information data matrix having a bit depth (for example, 8bit), a printing width of n1, and a printing length of m 1. The printing position of the gradation harmony information is specified by the coordinates (n, m) in the black-and-white binarization information, that is, within the area range { (n +1, m +1), (n + n1, m + m1) } of the black-and-white binarization information, the printing position and the printing area range of the gradation harmony information required for the existence of the record are specified. In the present embodiment, the recording position and range of the gradation tuning information do not exceed the area range of the black-and-white binarization information, i.e., 0. ltoreq.n, N + N1. ltoreq.n and 0. ltoreq.m, and M + M1. ltoreq.m.

In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 7, within the range of the recording area { (1, 1), (N, M) } on the same heat-sensitive medium, there is the binary information of black and white required for recording, and there is the gradation tuning information of the designated area required for recording, and the printing area thereof is { (N +1, M +1), (N + N1, M + M1) }, where 0. ltoreq. N, N + N1. ltoreq. N and 0. ltoreq. M, and M + M1. ltoreq.m. The monochrome binarization information is binarization data of {0, 1}, and the grayscale harmonization information is grayscale data of {0 to 255} (for example, 8 bits), and in this embodiment, the maximum value Dmax of the data value in the grayscale harmonization information is 255 and the minimum value Dmin is 0.

And 2, data transformation.

A maximum value Dmax and a minimum value Dmin are extracted from the data value of the gradation tone information, and data of "0" or "1" in the monochrome binarized information is converted into a data format having the same depth as the gradation tone information, wherein "0" is converted into the minimum value Dmin of the data value in the gradation tone information, and "1" is converted into the maximum value Dmax of the data value in the gradation tone information. Therefore, the printing density of the monochrome binary information and the maximum printing density of the gradation harmony information are on the same level, and the consistency of the visual density of the entire information record can be maintained.

And 3, recombining data.

And (3) recombining the black-and-white binary data and the gray scale harmony data after the data transformation in the step (2) and the designated printing area data of the gray scale harmony information in the step (1) into a whole: that is, the entire printing region range is { (1, 1), (N, M) }, and one printing data is stored for each printing point DOT, the printing data being printing data having a bit depth, wherein the data of the above-described gradation tone information is stored in the designated region range of { (N +1, M +1), (N + N1, M + M1) }.

As shown in fig. 8, while the gradation data of the designated print region { (n +1, m +1), (n + n1, m + m1) } is kept unchanged, the print drive control unit 2 converts the monochrome binarization data {0, 1} of the monochrome binarization information region, converts the binarization data "1" into the maximum value Dmax of the gradation data, and converts the binarization data "0" into the minimum value Dmin of the gradation data.

And 4, converting the data formed in the step 3 into printing data to further form a plurality of printing sequences.

As shown in fig. 9, the printing data stored for each printing point in the entire printing area after data rearrangement is converted into a set of printing data, and each printing point of each printing line corresponds to a heating element unit in the main printing direction of the thermal head; each group of printing data corresponding to each printing point of each printing line forms Ln printing sequences, each printing sequence comprises a plurality of data bits, each data bit corresponds to each printing point one by one, and a data bit of 0 represents that the printing point corresponding to the data bit is not heated during printing; a data bit of 1 indicates that the print dot corresponding to the data bit is heated at the time of printing.

In this embodiment, the print data stored for each print dot in the entire print area after data rearrangement is converted into a set of print data by linear data conversion. The print data (for example, 8 bits) having a bit depth is converted into a data sequence format as shown in fig. 9:

when the print data of the print dot is 0, the corresponding set of print data is {0, 0, 0, 0, …, 0}, and Ln data bits in total.

When the print data of a print dot is 1, the corresponding set of print data is {1, 0, 0, 0, …, 0}, and Ln data bits in total.

When the print data of a print dot is 2, the corresponding set of print data is {1, 1, 0, 0, …, 0}, and Ln data bits in total.

When the print data of a print dot is 3, the corresponding set of print data is {1, 1, 1, 0, …, 0}, and Ln data bits in total.

…………

When the print data of a print dot is 255, the corresponding set of print data is {1, 1, 1, 1, …, 1}, and Ln data bits in total. Thereby forming a print data matrix.

And 5, printing and outputting.

Sequentially reading Ln printing sequences formed in the step 4 in a printing cycle of one printing line by a printing driving control part 2 of the thermal recording device, controlling the thermal printing head to print once every time one printing sequence is read, and controlling the thermal printing head to print the Ln-th time until the Ln-th printing sequence is read, thereby completing the printing cycle of one printing line; and then, printing the next printing line until the whole printing is finished. This process is consistent with the process shown in fig. 4.

The thermal printing control method can realize simultaneous printing of black-and-white binary information with a recording requirement and gray scale harmony information of a designated area on the same thermal medium, can keep consistency of visual density of the whole information record, effectively reduces storage and calculation load of image or character information processed by a thermal recording device, and improves printing speed and printing quality.

The thermal printing control method of the present invention can simultaneously realize the gray scale harmonization information recording requirements of a plurality of designated areas within the range of the black and white binarized information recording area on the same thermal medium.

Claims

1. A thermal printing control method characterized by: the method comprises the following steps:

2. The thermal printing control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: in step 4, the print data stored for each print dot in the entire print area after the data rearrangement is converted into a set of print data by a linear data conversion method.

3. The thermal printing control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: within the range of black and white binary information recording area on the same thermal medium, the gray scale tuning information recording requirements of a plurality of designated areas can be realized simultaneously.

4. A thermal recording apparatus comprising a thermal head for supplying a printing energy, a print drive control section, and a thermal medium carrying section, wherein the thermal head includes a plurality of heat generating element units arranged linearly in accordance with a predetermined resolution, the linearly arranged heat generating element units being arranged in a direction perpendicular to a thermal medium carrying direction, the thermal recording apparatus comprising: the thermal recording device prints on the thermal medium by adopting the thermal printing control method of any one of claims 1 to 3, so as to simultaneously print black-and-white binary information with a recording requirement and gray scale harmony information of a designated area in one printing process of the same thermal medium.