i 3 i 25 I 26 t5
Contents
1. US 2011 0236104 Al However this setting is carried out as an editing item selec tion screen shown in a screen D05 is displayed by the opera tion of the edit key 0044 Next the operation to cancel on a character basis the justification set for the paragraph and then set character spacing will be described character mode setting unit If the cursor K is moved to the character H YAMA by the operation of the cursor keys in the state of the screen D03 a screen D04 is displayed If the edit key is pressed in the state of the screen D04 the editing item selection screen screen D05 is displayed Here if the cursor K is moved to justification of the plural editing items in the character mode font decorated character italic and highlight enlarge and reduce enclose and shade justification end and the select key is pressed a justification setting screen screen D06 is displayed The justification setting screen is a screen for setting whether to make a particular part a target of the justification for the paragraph or not That is with the setting on this screen it is possible to set a justification non target range Here if the cursor K is moved to an item non target and the select key is pressed a character spacing setting screen screen D07 is displayed 0045 The character spacing setting screen is a screen for setting character spacing in the case where the item n2. If the cursor K is moved to the item from this character in the screen D09 and the select key is pressed a text input screen of a screen D10 is displayed In the screen D10 a character mode mark M1 black right pointing trian gular mark indicating that the character mode is set is dis played in the text display area With this display the user can gt confirm that the character mode is set on the character FE DA and the subsequent characters Also in the screen D10 a state where the character spacing between the characters YAMA and EE DA is set to normal is displayed in the preview display area The result of printing a label L that is produced in the case where the print key is pressed in the screen D10 is as shown in FIG 4B 0049 A screen D11 is the display screen 41 text input screen after setting the character _ to justification target Sep 29 2011 and setting the character RI RO to justification non target character spacing normal following the screen D05 to the screen D09 In the screen D11 three character mode marks M1 M2 and M3 indicating that the character mode is set are displayed in the text display area and the result of the above setting is displayed in the preview display area The result of printing a label L that is produced in the case where the print key is pressed in the screen D11 is as sh
3. TA are set to allocation target and the characters FE DA and HR RO are set to allocation non target In the following description a char acter set to allocation target is referred to as a target characters and a character set to allocation non target is referred to as a non target character 0052 FIG 5B shows the number of allocated dots that are allocated to each character in the first line LJ HAR YAMADA TARO in the case where the setting shown in FIG 3 is carried out In this embodiment the number of dots represents the length in the longitudinal direction of the tape T The number of allocated dots represents dots allocated to target characters other than the leading character Therefore in the example shown in FIG 3 n dots are allocated to each of the characters _ and A TA That is justification is carried out using the spacing between each character within the target range and the character immediately before this each character Thus since there is no character immediately before the first character of each line the first character of each line does not become a target of justification even when this character is set within a target range Therefore even when the leading character is set as a target character as in this example no dots are allocated to the leading character Thus misalignment of the head position from other lines and appea
4. include up down left and right keys 1 These keys are for cursor movement and scrolling The select key is a key for select ing and finalizing an option The delete key is a key for deleting or erasing a character The edit key is a key for setting a character mode setting a paragraph style setting a text format and the like A paragraph refers to an aggre gate of lines or one line printed in a way that these lines are stacked to the tape width A text refers to all the paragraphs all the lines and all the characters printed on one label L see FIG 4A to FIG 4D That is the size of each unit is in ascending order of character lt line lt paragraph lt text 0032 The display screen 41 is a liquid crystal display and is used by the user when confirming an editing result based on input information inputted via the keyboard 3 and print data or the like generated on the basis of the editing result 0033 A tape discharge port 22 connecting the cartridge loading section 6 to outside is formed at a left side part of the apparatus case 2 In the tape discharge port 22 a tape cutter 23 for cutting a tape T that is sent out exists The tape T that is already printed is sent out by a predetermined length from the tape discharge port 22 In the state where the sending of the tape is temporarily stopped the printed tape T is cut by the tape cutter 23 Thus a stripe like la
5. shown in FIG 5C Here if there is a certain number of allocated dots in the target line Yes in S13 line allocation processing is carried out S14 If there isn t any number of allocated dots in the target line No in S13 S14 is omitted After that it is determined whether there is an unprocessed line or not S15 If there is an unprocessed line Yes in 515 the processing returns to S11 If there is no unprocessed line No in 515 the paragraph allocation processing ends 0055 FIG 7 is a flowchart showing the line allocation processing equivalent to S14 in FIG 6 The tape printing apparatus 1 CPU 110 determines whether the number of characters in the target line is greater than 0 or not S21 Ifthe number of characters in the target line is not greater than 0 No in 21 there is no character in the target line the line allo cation processing ends If the number of characters in the target line is greater than 0 Yes in 921 there are characters in the target line the number of allocated characters in the target line is calculated S22 The number of allocated char acters in the target line is equivalent to the number of allo cated characters in each line shown in FIG 5C 0056 After that it is determined whether the number of allocated characters in the target line is greater than 0 or not S23 If the number of allocated characters in the target line is not greater than 0 No in S23 there is no allocated cha
6. the tape identification sensors 27 are provided in the cartridge loading section 6 The tape identification sensors 27 detect the type of the tape T housed in the tape cartridge C The CPU 110 controls the limitations to the number of lines and the number of characters that can be inputted as a text the determination of compatibility of the loaded tape cartridge C and the like on the basis of the result of detection by the tape identification sensors 27 on the basis of the tape width and the like The CPU 110 also controls the display processing on the display screen 41 the editing processing and the print processing 0042 Next the operations from the creation of a para graph to the allocation and the result of printing based on these operations will be described with reference to FIG 3 and FIG 4A to FIG 4D The screen indicated by a reference symbol D01 hereinafter referred to as screen D shows a text input screen in a state where no input is made yet In the text input screen in the state where no input is made yet a cursor K is added to a beginning of line mark indicated by an enclosed number The beginning of line mark displayed in white the number representing the line number displayed in black means that no character is inputted in this and subse quent lines The beginning of line mark displayed in black the number representing the line number displayed in white means that characters are inputted in this and subse
7. 6104 Al reel 54 is arranged closely to the ribbon reel 19 The ink ribbon R reeled off from the ribbon reel 19 is arranged to surround the head cover 61a and becomes reeled in by the ribbon reel in reel 54 0036 When the tape cartridge C is loaded in the cartridge loading section 6 the head cover 61a is inserted in the through hole 55 the position protrusion 64 is inserted in the center hole of the tape reel 17 and the reel in drive shaft 63 is inserted in the center hole of the ribbon reel in reel 54 The print head 7 is abutted against the platen roller 53 with the tape T and the ink ribbon R nipped between the print head 7 and the platen roller 53 Thus printing becomes available After that as the user inputs a desired text characters includ ing letters numbers symbols and simple patterns or image via the keyboard 3 while confirming the result of editing on the display screen 41 and then presses the print key to designate printing the tape printing apparatus 1 reels off the tape T from the tape cartridge C by the tape feeding motor 26 and causes a heat generating element of the print head 7 to selectively generate heat thus performing desired printing on the tape T The printed part of the tape T is sent outside as required from the tape discharge port 22 When the printing is completed the tape feeding motor 26 feeds the tape T to a position where a tape length including a margin is obtained After that the tape feedi
8. ALLOCATION PROCESSING NUMBER OF CHARACTERS IN TARGET LINE gt 0 CALCULATE NUMBER OF ALLOCATED CHARACTERS IN TARGET LINE 22 NUMBER OF ALLOCATED CHARACTERS gt 0 CALCULATE NUMBER OF CENTERING ALLOCATED DOTS IN NUMBER OF ALLOCATED DOTS EACH CHARACTER IN LEADING CHARACTER NUMBER OF ALLOCATED DOTS IN TARGET LINE 2 ANY REMAINDER ALLOCATE ONE DOT EACH FROM REMAINING DOTS FIG 7 Patent Application Publication Sep 29 2011 Sheet 8 of 8 US 2011 0236104 FIG 8A LUE KER YAMADA TARO ERR 22KBS SATO KOTARO FIG 8B LL HA ER RED LE XER YAMADA TARO IERE EA SATO KOTARO US 2011 0236104 Al TAPE PRINTING APPARATUS CHARACTER ARRANGEMENT DECIDING MEHTOD FOR TAPE PRINTING APPARAUS AND PROGRAM FOR THE SAME BACKGROUND 0001 1 Technical Field 0002 The present invention relates to a tape printing appa ratus that can create a paragraph including plural lines of character strings and print the paragraph on a tape a character arrangement deciding method for the tape printing apparatus and a program for the same 0003 2 Related Art 0004 Traditionally a tape printing apparatus of this kind can provide several paragraphs on one label and thus can provide various different numbers of lines or change design for each paragraph Also justification is known as an attribute paragraph style that can be set for each paragraph This justification
9. HARACTER SPACING NORMAL 45 ME KER BM Kb ragen EN mm PONESE y MOVE CURSOR TO CHARACTER MODE SE PRESS SELECT KEY JUSTIFICATION PIES YAMADA TARO TARGET SKO KOTARO NON TARGET M1 M2 M3 FIG 3 Patent Application Publication Sep 29 2011 Sheet 4 of 8 US 2011 0236104 FIG 4A LER TARO tei ZEB SATO KOTARO FIG 4B LUE BB YAMADA TARO Ikk AB SATO KOTARO FIG 4C WIE 2BB YAMADA TARO ERR KBR SATO KOTARO FIG 4D LE UE ABB YAMADA TARO IE ics K Bl p ZABR SATO KOTARO US 2011 0236104 Sep 29 2011 Sheet 5 of 8 Patent Application Publication OS SIs De NON 40 838 SHILOVHVHO 10 38 1 SLOG 4OHSEWNN SLOT 40 HAENNN 3 HOV NI SHALIVHVHI 40 HIENNN GSLYOOTIV 40 HASAN SLOG GaLvOOTIV JO BIENNN ow 16 v1 VIVA HSLOWHVHO VS Sls LFDOYVLI NONILSOYVL LADHVL LADUVI NON INOLLVOOTIV OH ia v1 a m VINVA MIH3LOVHYHO UHILOVHWHO 3 NI SLOG ANN HOYA NI SLOG CALVOOTIV 30 HIANNN Patent Application Publication Sep 29 2011 Sheet 6 of 8 US 2011 0236104 START PARAGRAPH ALLOCATION PROCESSING IS THERE ANY NUMBER OF ALLOCATED DOTS IS THERE UNPROCESSED LINE FIG 6 Patent Application Publication Sep 29 2011 Sheet 7 of 8 US 2011 0236104 START LINE
10. US 20110236104A1 az Patent Application Publication 10 Pub No US 2011 0236104 Al as United States Takayama 43 Pub Date Sep 29 2011 54 TAPE PRINTING APPARATUS CHARACTER ARRANGEMENT DECIDING MEHTOD FOR TAPE PRINTING APPARAUS AND PROGRAM FOR THE SAME 75 Inventor Shoji Takayama Azumino shi JP 73 Assignee Seiko Epson Corporation Tokyo JP 21 Appl No 13 046 123 22 Filed Mar 11 2011 30 Foreign Application Priority Data Mar 24 2010 2010 067229 Publication Classification 51 Int Cl B41J 5 30 2006 01 TAPE PRINTING APPARATUS 110 52 USC sense aa eee eet 400 61 57 ABSTRACT A tape printing apparatus includes a paragraph creating unit which creates a paragraph including plural lines of character strings a justification setting unit which sets justification to evenly allocate other lines to the same length as a longest line of the plural lines in the paragraph a character mode setting unit which sets a non target range to be a non target of the justification on a character basis within the paragraph and sets a length of character spacing within the non target range a character arrangement deciding unit which carries out jus tification based on the justification setting unit in a target range excluding the non target range set by the character mode setting unit and thus decides an arrangement of char acters in each line included in t
11. a high degree of freedom for character arrangement in a paragraph can be realized BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0020 The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings wherein like numbers reference like elements 0021 FIG 1isaperspective view showing the appearance of a tape printing apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention 0022 FIG 2 isa control block diagram of the tape printing apparatus 0023 FIG 3isascreen transition view showing a series of operations from the creation of a paragraph to the allocation 0024 FIG 4A to FIG 4D are explanatory views showing the result of printing a label 0025 FIG 5A to FIG 5C are explanatory views showing the setting of a character mode for each character the number of dots allocated to each character and a calculation formula for the same 0026 FIG 6 is a flowchart showing paragraph allocation by the tape printing apparatus 0027 FIG 7 is a flowchart showing line allocation by the tape printing apparatus 0028 FIG 8A and FIG 8A are explanatory views show ing the result of printing a label according to a traditional technique DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS 0029 Hereinafter an embodiment of the invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings FIG 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of a tape printing apparatus 1 according to this embodiment with its open close cover 21 op
12. ange That is in the case where the item non target is selected on the justification setting screen screen D06 and the item to this character is selected on the screen D09 a character that is the setting target may be set as the ending character of the non target range 0063 In the embodiment the start or end of a non target range can be set on a character basis by the character mode setting for each character However it is also possible to enable the setting of the starting position and the ending position of the non target range by a series of operations That US 2011 0236104 Al is for the setting of the non target range the cursor K may be moved to designate the starting position and then the cursor keys may be operated to designate the ending position 0064 The components of the tape printing apparatus 1 described in the embodiment can be provided as a program Also the program stored in various recording media CD ROM flash memory and so on can be provided That is a program which causes a computer to function as each unit of the tape printing apparatus 1 and a recording medium in which this program is recorded should also be included in the scope of right of the invention Moreover various changes and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention 0065 This invention can be used for a tape printer con nected to a personal computer the personal computer remotely contr
13. bel L is created see FIG 4A to FIG 4D For the cutting processing whether to drive acut motor 25 see FIG 2 can be set according to the option to carry out or not to carry out automatic cutting 0034 In the cartridge loading section 6 a head unit 61 having a thermal print head 7 built in a head cover 61a a platen drive shaft 62 facing the print head 7 a reel in drive shaft 63 which reels in an ink ribbon R which will be described later and a positioning protrusion 64 for a tape reel 17 which will be described later are provided A tape feeding motor 26 see FIG 2 which rotates the platen drive shaft 62 and the reel in drive shaft 63 is built in a part below the cartridge loading section 6 0035 The tape cartridge C houses a tape reel 17 on which the tape T with a predetermined width approximately 4 to 48 mm is wound at a top central part within a cartridge case 51 and a ribbon reel 19 on which the ink ribbon R is wound at a bottom right part The tape T and the ink ribbon R have the same width A through hole 55 in which the head cover 61a covering the head unit 61 is to be inserted is formed at a left part below the tape reel 17 With the head unit 61 inserted in the through hole 55 a platen roller 53 which is engaged with the platen drive shaft 62 and thus rotationally driven is arranged corresponding to the part where the tape T and the ink ribbon R overlap each other Meanwhile a ribbon reel in US 2011 023
14. ened As shown in FIG 1 the contour of the tape printing apparatus 1 is formed by an apparatus case 2 A keyboard 3 having various input keys is arranged on the top side of a front part of the apparatus case 2 The open close cover 21 is attached to a left part on the top side of a rear part A display screen 41 is arranged to the right of the open close cover 21 Inside the open close cover 21 a cartridge loading section 6 for loading a tape cartridge C is formed as a recess Sep 29 2011 The tape cartridge C is removably loaded in the cartridge loading section 6 in the state where the open close cover 21 is opened In the open close cover 21 a viewing window 21a is formed which allows visual recognition of loading or non loading of the tape cartridge C in the state where the open close cover 21 is closed 0030 A character key group 3a and a function key group 3b to designate various operation modes or the like are arranged on the keyboard 3 The character key group 3a has a full key configuration based on the JIS arrangement The character key group 3a is similar to the key configuration of a general word processor including a shift key for restraining increase in the number of keys to be operated The function key group 35 includes a print key cursor keys a select key a delete key and an edit key 0031 The print key is a key for designating the execu tion of printing The cursor keys
15. er mode setting unit which sets a non target range to be a non target of the justification on a character basis within the paragraph and sets a length of character spacing within the non target range a character arrangement deciding unit which carries out justification based on the justification set ting unit in a target range excluding the non target range set by the character mode setting unit and thus decides an arrangement of characters in each line included in the para graph and a printing unit which prints the paragraph on a tape with the character arrangement decided by the character arrangement deciding unit 0010 According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a character arrangement deciding method for a tape printing apparatus that can print a paragraph including plural lines of character strings The method includes allow ing the tape printing apparatus to create the paragraph set justification to evenly allocate other lines to the same length as a longest line of the plural lines in the paragraph set a non target range to be a non target of the justification on a character basis within the paragraph and set a length of character spacing within the non target range and carry out justification based on the justification setting in a target range excluding the non target range that is set and thus deciding an arrangement of characters in each line included in the para graph 0011 With these configurati
16. er spacing as an editing item in the character mode That is it is possible to enable the selection of an editing item character spacing on the editing item selection screen screen D05 0061 Inthe embodiment justification is carried out using the spacing between each character within a justification tar get range and the character immediately before that character However the spacing between each character within a justi fication target range and the character immediately after that character may also be used In other words dots in the number of allocated dots may be allocated to the character spacing between a target character and the following character instead of allocating the dots to the character spacing between the target character and the preceding character It is also possible to enable the user to set whether to allocate the dots before or after the target character 0062 In the embodiment as a method for setting a justi fication non target range in the case where the item non target is selected on the justification setting screen screen D06 and the item from this character is selected on the screen D09 for setting an effective range of the character mode a character that is the setting target is set as the starting character of the non target range However it is also possible to enable the setting of the ending character of the non target range instead of the starting character of the non target r
17. g can be set on a character basis in a non target range to be a non target of justification that is set for a paragraph There fore the degree of freedom for the character arrangement within the paragraph can be enhanced Thus even in the case where the character spacing is excessively expanded by the justification of the paragraph a range covering the unfitting part can be set as a non target range and the character spacing within this range can be set to a desired length Therefore characters in each line included in the paragraph can be arranged with proper appearance Moreover since the length of character spacing can be selected from plural candidates indicating relative lengths such as close narrow nor mal and wide even a beginner can easily set the length of character spacing 0059 In the embodiment the character spacing can be selected from plural candidates indicating relative lengths However it is also possible to enable the setting of the char acter spacing by inputting numeric values character mode setting unit In this case values may be inputted in any unit for example in inches in millimeters or in dots 0060 In the embodiment in the case where justifica tion non target is set in the character mode the character spacing can be set as its lower hierarchical level see the screen D06 and the screen D07 in FIG 3 However it is also possible to enable the setting of the charact
18. haracter mode setting target character either as a starting character of the non target range or as a starting character of the target range as the setting of the non target range 4 The tape printing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the character arrangement deciding unit carries out the justification using the spacing between each character within the target range anda character immediately before the each character 5 A character arrangement deciding method for a tape printing apparatus that can print a paragraph including plural lines of character strings the method comprising creating the paragraph setting justification to evenly allocate other lines to the same length as a longest line of the plural lines in the paragraph setting a non target range to be a non target of the justifi cation ona character basis within the paragraph and set a length of character spacing within the non target range and carrying out justification based on the justification setting in a target range excluding the non target range that is set and thus deciding an arrangement of characters in each line included in the paragraph 6 A program causing a computer to execute the operation of the character arrangement deciding method for the tape printing apparatus according to claim 5 ko k
19. he paragraph and a printing unit which prints the paragraph on a tape with the character arrangement decided by the character arrangement deciding unit TAPE CUTTER tn kak CARTRIDGE LOADING SECTION US 2011 0236104 Sep 29 2011 Sheet 1 of 8 Patent Application Publication FIG 1 US 2011 0236104 Sep 29 2011 Sheet 2 of 8 Patent Application Publication 6 Old YOSNAS NOILVOISILNAGI NOILO3JS HNIAVOT IOGIHLHVO NI3HOS v3dv JOVHOLS AV1d SIG HALOVYVHO HALLND AdVL SNLVEVddV ONILNidd Patent Application Publication Sep 29 2011 Sheet 3 of 8 US 2011 0236104 DO1 MOVE CURSOR TO NON TARGET PRESS SELECT KEY CHARACTER SPACING CLOSE NARROW NORMAL WIDE D07 45 KER MOVE CURSOR TO NORMAL PRESS SELECT KEY Ou TET YAMADA TARO a CHARACTER MODE DO8 8 Oia EK BK SATO KOTARO ENLARGE REDUCE PRESS EDIT TK ENCLOSE SHADE yE Er STYLE ALLOCATION USTIFICATION JUSTIFICATION 45 END a ily FH K ER Ne ZAR MOVE CURSOR TO END mn PRESS SELECT KEY 0 URAM YAMADA TARO m D09 ER_ERBTK GATOKOTARO ann FROM THIS CHARACTER NOVE CURSOR TO FROM THIS CHARACTER PRESS SELECT KEY K 3 pale SATO KOTERO E BB REB OLRLAR vane BREE SET TO JUSTIFICATION TARGET M1 ROY TO JUSTIFICATION NON TARGET C
20. ide other setting than close character spacing for the character setting in which justification is canceled Therefore there are only two options that is making character strings within the para graph a target of justification or making the character strings as a non target of justification The characters within the paragraph cannot necessarily be arranged as desired by the user That is in the example shown in FIG 8A and FIG 8B the character spacing between H YAMA and FE DA and between A TA and EB RO in the first line YAMADA TARO cannot be made narrower than in FIG 8A and cannot be made longer than in FIG 8B either even if the user wants such setting SUMMARY 0008 An advantage of some aspects of the invention is that a tape printing apparatus having a high degree of freedom for the character arrangement within a paragraph a character Sep 29 2011 arrangement deciding method for the tape printing apparatus and a program for the same can be provided 0009 According to an aspect of the invention there is provided a tape printing apparatus including a paragraph creating unit which creates a paragraph including plural lines of character strings a justification setting unit which sets justification to evenly allocate other lines to the same length as a longest line of the plural lines in the paragraph a char act
21. is the function of aligning other lines to the length of the longest line in the paragraph for example as described in the User s Manual of TEPRA PRO SR930 by KING JIM July 2009 Third Edition pages 73 82 0005 When this justification function is used if different lines have different numbers of characters there is a problem that the character spacing spreads in a line with a small number of characters thus spoiling the appearance FIG 8A shows the result of printing a label L where the first line KEB YAMADA TARO is justified in a similar layout to the second line SER ZEAHR SATO KOTARO _ indicating a halfwidth space In this manner since the first line has a smaller number of characters than the second line the first line looks sparse as a whole 0006 Thus even in the case where a paragraph is justified the justification of the character spacing between some char acters that look sparse can be canceled made non target thus narrowing the character spacing to improve the appear ance FIG 8B shows the result of printing a label L where the justification of the character spacing between I 1 YAMA and FE DA and between TA and A RO in the first line LU YAMADA TARO is canceled 0007 However the tape printing apparatus described in the User s Manual of TEPRA PRO SR930 by KING JIM July 2009 Third Edition pages 73 82 cannot prov
22. ng motor 26 stops the feeding and then the apparatus shifts to cutting processing 0037 Meanwhile the tape T includes a recording tape Ta having an adhesive layer formed on its back side and a separation tape Tb pasted to the recording tape Ta by the adhesive layer The tape T is wound in the shape of a roll with the recording tape Ta facing outside and the separation tape Tb facing inside and is housed in the cartridge case 51 Different types of tapes T with different tape widths tape background colors background patterns materials and the like are prepared One of these types of tapes T or ink ribbons R is housed in each cartridge case 51 On the back side of the cartridge case 51 plural holes not shown to specify the type of the tape cartridge C are provided In the cartridge loading section 6 plural tape identification sensors micro switches or the like 27 see FIG 2 to detect the plural holes are provided corresponding to the plural holes As the tape identification sensors 27 detect the state of the plural holes the tape type can be determined 0038 Next the control configuration of the tape printing apparatus 1 will be described with reference to the control block diagram of FIG 2 The tape printing apparatus 1 has a CPU central processing unit 110 a RAM random access memory 120 a ROM read only memory 130 the display screen 41 the keyboard 3 the cutter motor 25 the tape cutter 23 the tape feeding mot
23. ol the tape printer 0066 Theentire disclosure of Japanese Patent Application No 2010 67229 filed Mar 24 2010 is expressly incorpo rated by reference herein What is claimed is 1 A tape printing apparatus comprising a paragraph creating unit which creates a paragraph includ ing plural lines of character strings a justification setting unit which sets justification to evenly allocate other lines to the same length as a longest line of the plural lines in the paragraph acharacter mode setting unit which sets a non target range to bea non target of the justification on a character basis within the paragraph and sets a length of character spacing within the non target range a character arrangement deciding unit which carries out justification based on the justification setting unit in a target range excluding the non target range set by the character mode setting unit and thus decides an arrange ment of characters in each line included in the para graph and Sep 29 2011 a printing unit which prints the paragraph on a tape with the character arrangement decided by the character arrange ment deciding unit 2 The tape printing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the character mode setting unit selects a length of character spacing within the non target range from plural candidates representing relative lengths 3 The tape printing apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the character mode setting unit sets a c
24. on target is selected on the justification setting screen 0046 In the character spacing setting screen character spacing can be selectively set from among plural candidates indicating relative lengths Here if the cursor K is moved to anitem normal and the select key is pressed a screen D08 for selecting an item in the character mode is displayed If the cursor K is moved to the item end meaning the end of editing in the character mode in the screen D08 and the select key is pressed a screen D09 for selecting a valid range of the editing content is displayed 0047 Inthe screen D09 either an item entire text or an item from this character can be selected For example if entire text is selected the editing content is reflected on the entire text Meanwhile if from this character is selected the editing content is reflected on that character and the sub sequent characters the position of the cursor K and the sub sequent part That is when the item from this character is selected the character that is the setting target in this example HE DA is set as the starting character of a non target range If the item target is selected in the justi fication setting screen screen D06 and the item from this character is selected in the screen D09 the character that is the setting target is set as the starting character of a target range 0048
25. ons in a non target range to be a non target of justification set for a paragraph the length of character spacing can be set on a character basis There fore the degree of freedom for character arrangement within the paragraph can be enhanced Thus even when the charac ter spacing is excessively expanded by the justification of the paragraph a range covering the unfitting part can be set as a non target range and the character spacing within this range can be set to a desired length Therefore characters in each line included in the paragraph can be arranged with proper appearance 0012 Inthe tape printing apparatus it is preferable that the character mode setting unit selects a length of character spac ing within the non target range from plural candidates repre senting relative lengths 0013 With this configuration the length of character spacing can be selected from plural candidates such as close narrow normal and wide Thus even a begin ner can easily set the length of character spacing 0014 In the tape printing apparatus it is also preferable that the character mode setting unit sets a character mode setting target character either as a starting character of the non target range or as a starting character of the target range as the setting of the non target range 0015 With this configuration a non target range and a target range can be set by character mode setting for each character F
26. or 26 the print head 7 and the tape identification sensors 27 These components are connected via a bus 150 0039 The RAM 120 is directly connected with the CPU 110 and is used as a work area when the CPU 110 carries out various kinds of control The ROM 130 stores control pro grams and various kinds of information for carrying out vari ous kinds of control Specifically as the control programs a display control program to control the display on the display screen 41 a paragraph creation processing program to create a paragraph a paragraph allocation processing program to carry out allocation processing within a paragraph a print processing program to carry out print processing and the like are stored not shown The ROM 130 also has a character Sep 29 2011 storage area 131 in which many characters used for the dis play on the display screen 41 and the print on the tape T are stored 0040 The display screen 41 functions as a display unit to display the result of editing and print layout The keyboard 3 functions as an input unit for the user to input information an editing unit to carry out editing processing a setting unit to carry out various kinds of setting and the like 0041 Thecutter motor 25 is connected with the tape cutter 23 and functions as a cutting unit The tape feeding motor 26 and the print head 7 function as a printing unit to carry out printing on the tape T As described above the print head 7 and
27. or example in a character string ABCDE if the character B is set as the starting character of the non target range the character strings from B becomes the non target range Thus the invention can be realized simply by adding US 2011 0236104 Al an option whether to make a character or characters a target of justification or not to a character mode menu 0016 In the tape printing apparatus it is also preferable that the character arrangement deciding unit carries out the justification using the spacing between each character within the target range and a character immediately before the each character 0017 With this configuration for example in the case where a character string BCD as a part of a character string ABCDE is set as a target range justification can be realized using the spacing between A and B between B and C and between C and D Since there is no character immediately before the leading character in each line the first character the leading character does not become a target of justification even if this character is set as a target range 0018 According to still another aspect of the invention there is provided a program causing a computer to execute each operation of the character arrangement deciding method for the tape printing apparatus 0019 Using this program a character arrangement decid ing method for a tape printing apparatus with
28. own in FIG 4C 0050 As shown in FIG 4A to FIG 4D the result of printing shown in FIG 4C has an improved appearance because the character spacing between IlI YAMA and FE DA and between X TA and 8 RO in the first line KER YAMADA TARO is narrower than in FIG 4A where only justification for the paragraph is carried out This improvement in appearance can berealized sincethe character spacing between Hi and FE DA and between X TA and BB RO is set to justification non target and further to character spacing normal as shown in FIG 4D In FIG 4C the character spacing between FE DA and _ indicated by a dotted line frame in FIG 4C and between _ and A TA which is set to justifi cation target is widened as the character spacing between fl YAMA and FE DA and between X TA and Al RO is narrowed Hereinafter this allocation process ing will be described in detail 0051 FIG 5A shows the setting of the character mode justification for the first line LI FE ES YAMADA TARO in the case where the setting shown in FIG 3 is carried out As described above in the character mode a target or non target of justification for a paragraph can be set on a character basis In the example shown in FIG 3 the charac ters HI YAMA _ and A
29. quent lines see D02 or the like On the bottom side of the text input screen there is a text display area showing inputted texts On the top side of the text input screen there is a print preview area Moreover at a top left part of the screen there is a size display area showing the size of a label L to be produced For example in the example shown in FIG 3 since no input is made yet it is shown that the tape length is 0 0 mm and the tape width is 18 mm on the basis of the result of detection by the tape identification sensors 27 0043 first paragraph are inputted Here it is assumed that h EI YAMADA TARO is inputted in the first line and 4E KH SATO KOTARO is inputted in the second line _ meaning a halfwidth space paragraph cre ating unit Here ifthe edit key is pressed and allocation justification is set as the paragraph style the screen D03 is displayed justification setting unit In the screen D03 a state where other lines in this example the first line are evenly allocated to the same length as the longest line in this example the second line of the lines included in the para graph is displayed in the print preview area The result of printing a label L that is produced when the print key is pressed in the state of the screen D03 is as shown in FIG 4A The setting of the paragraph style is not described in detail A screen D02 shows a state where characters of the
30. rac ter the target line is centered S24 For example a case where all the characters in the target line are set as non target characters is equivalent to this case In this case the number of allocated dots in the leading character is calculated by dividing the number of allocated dots in the target line by 2 0057 Meanwhile if the number of allocated characters in the target line is greater than 0 Yes in S23 there are allocated characters the number of allocated dots in each character is calculated S25 The number of allocated dots in each char acter can be calculated according to the calculation formula shown in FIG 5C After that it is determined whether there is any number of remaining dots or not S26 Ifthere is a certain number of remaining dots Yes in S26 the remaining dots are allocated one dot each to each target character each char acter spacing That is one dot each from the remaining dots is allocated to each of the characters _ and A TA thus aligning the leading end and the terminal end of the line This allocation means that the remaining dots are allocated to the Sep 29 2011 two character spacings indicated as justification target in FIG 4C If there isn t any number of remaining dots No in S26 S27 is omitted and the line allocation processing ends 0058 As described above with the tape printing apparatus 1 according to the embodiment the length of character spac in
31. rance and the resulting poor appearance can be pre vented US 2011 0236104 Al 0053 FIG 5C shows a calculation formula for calculating the number of allocated dots n As shown in FIG 5C the number of allocated dots n that are allocated to each character is the value of the number of allocated dots in each line divided by the number of allocated characters in each line The number of allocated dots in each line is the number of dots obtained by subtracting the number of dots in each line from the number of dots in the longest line of the plural liens included in the paragraph The number of allocated charac ters in each line is the number obtained by subtracting 1 from the number of characters in each line and then further sub tracting the number of non target characters from the result 0054 Next allocation processing by the tape printing apparatus 1 character arrangement deciding unit will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIG 6 and FIG 7 FIG 6 is a flowchart showing paragraph allocation pro cessing The tape printing apparatus 1 CPU 110 calculates the number of print dots in each line included in a paragraph S11 Next the tape printing apparatus 1 calculates the num ber of allocated dots in a target line to be a target of allocation S12 The number of allocated dots in the target line is equivalent to the number of allocated dots in each line
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