Seiko Epson Corporation

King Jim Co., Ltd.

Other

Seiko Epson Corporation and King Jim Co., Ltd.

Tomoyuki Shimmura

Kenji Watanabe

Takanobu Kameda

Chieko Aida

Hiroyasu Kurashina

Takeshi Hosokawa

Yoshiya Toyosawa

Hitoshi Hayama

Kenichi Nakajima

Hideki Oikawa

Hiroshi Kuriyama

Eiji Tukahara

Noriyuki Kamijo

Yoshiyuki Yanagisawa

Yoshikiyo Furuya

Shigekazu Yanagisawa

Susumu Takatsu

Tomohiro Moriya

Tomoyuki Ichikawa

Kenichi Tanabe

Shinji Ishizuka

Yoshiyuki Takeuchi

Tomoko Obata

Hiroaki Tanaka

Akira Hashimoto

Masahiko Nunokawa

Kiyoshi Ogawa

Takuya Suetani

Teruhiko Unno

Masaji Takayama

Chie Ohshima

Yasuyoshi Nakamura

Hiroko Niiyama

Masafumi Miyamoto

Shinichi Tukagoshii

Hironaga Iida

Youko Eto

The apparatus recognizes line length of character strings and judges if a line is longer than a threshold length. Slewing addition control divides a character string longer than the threshold length into two lines. When the number of inputted characters exceeds that allowed in the line, that part of the character string having the number of characters allowed for the line and that part of the characters overflowing the number of characters allowed in the line are displayed in different manners. The apparatus also calculates a ratio of lengths of a pair of specific lines to one or more other pairs, determines a character-size-type based on the ratios thus obtained, determines basic character sizes of the respective lines based on the character-size-type and then determines a character size for each line based on the length information and the basic character size of each line.

Apparatus and method for processing character information

Tape printing device is provided with the second and third screen modes M and M , in which the input document and its layout can be simultaneously displayed on the same screen. These modes can be switched by operating layout image simultaneous display key . The user can enter a document while viewing its layout image displayed on the same screen to obtain the desired layout. Thus, the present invention provides a user-friendly character information processing device in which the user can enter a document while viewing the layout image on screen to obtain the desired layout.

Character information processing device equipped with a layout display function

A seal producing apparatus includes file storing and recalling procedures wherein calling of a file is permitted only when a seal loaded in the seal producing apparatus is a seal type having a shape and size suitable to contain the allowable number of lines and the allowable number of characters per line in the seal type associated with the file to be called and when the size of the seal type of the seal loaded in the seal producing apparatus is equal to or larger than the size of the seal type associated with the file to be called.

Seal producing apparatus

An image forming method, a stamp-making method, and apparatuses implementing these methods are provided. Each of characters included in each character string on one or a plurality of lines are laid out within a rectangular contour having a defined width in a reading direction. Each of the characters are laid out so as to satisfy B>D>O, where D is the dimension of a margin between an edge of the contour and a character at an end of the string, and B is the dimension of an inter-character spacing between adjacent characters. Each of the characters are enlarged in the horizontal direction and laid out such that an area ratio of character portions to blank portions within the contour is equal to or lower than a constant value. Within the plurality of lines, the one having the smallest quotient G of a calculation (A&minus;C&times;F)/F is determined as the longest line, where A is the width of the contour, C is the character width of each of the characters, and an inter-character spacing in the longest line is determined as a reference inter-character spacing dimension B. The characters on the longest line and the remaining line are laid out based on the reference inter-character spacing dimension B.

Character layout method, image forming method and stamp-making method and apparatus therefor

An external character creating method is provided for an image forming apparatus having a display screen. The external character creating method includes the steps of displaying at least a portion of image data in a specifying area on the display screen, displaying a dot-shaped cursor on the display screen, and creating an external character on the displayed image data using the cursor. The cursor is fixed at a position in the specifying area, so that the image data is scrolled in the vertical direction and in the horizontal direction to create an external character.

Method of creating external characters in image forming apparatus

A code entry method obtains a desired character from one of a plurality of code-character conversion tables associated with different code systems in which one or more codes correspond to respective different characters and one or more characters are identified by different codes in the respective code systems. A code corresponding to the desired character in one of the plurality of code-character conversion tables is input. Different eligible characters identified by the input code in the respective plurality of code-character conversion tables are found, retrieved and displayed on a display screen. The desired character is selected from the displayed retrieved eligible characters. In one embodiment, only a first code-character conversion table contains the characters and the other code-character conversion tables identify the codes of the first code-conversion table corresponding to different codes of the other code-character conversion tables.

Method of selecting a character from a plurality of code character conversion tables

There are provided a method and device for forming a character string image in a predetermined image area based on a plurality of character images each occupying an area for one character, each of the character images being formed of an actual character image and blank images arranged on horizontally opposite sides of the actual character image in a manner immediately adjacent thereto. Actual character images are taken out from the character images, respectively. The thus taken-out actual character images are arranged in the predetermined image area according to a desired sequence, to thereby form the character string image. The thus formed character string image is handled as an equivalent to an image of one character.

Method and device for forming/processing character string image

There is provided a printing apparatus for printing on a continuous tape. When a portion of a continuous tape having passed a thermal head is cut at a predetermined cutting position, a stepping motor is caused to stop driving the platen roller for rotation to stop feeding of the tape, and then the tape is cut off. During tape-cutting operation, the stepping motor is held in an energized state. When the printing operation is resumed after stopping the feeding and printing of the tape, the thermal head is caused to print on a portion of the tape printed by an immediately preceding printing operation by the thermal head, in an overlapping manner, by the use of identical printing data or printing data for a next line of dots.

Tape-printing apparatus with control of feeding and cutting of a tape

A peeling device according to one aspect of the invention peels off part of a peel-off paper from a peel-off paper-backed adhesive tape which is a laminate of a substrate tape having a surface coated with an adhesive and a peel-off paper affixed to the substrate tape via the adhesive. A rotational member is rotated by a driving force transmitted from a drive source. On an end face of the rotational member there are arranged a peeling projection rotated to be brought into contact with a substrate tape-side surface of an end of the peel-off paper-backed adhesive tape to carry out a bending releasing action on said end portion of the adhesive tape. The adhesive tape is guided toward the peeling projection when it is inserted and part of the end portion other than a free end brought to the peeling projection is held. In a tape processing device for processing a peel-off paper-backed adhesive tape, according to another aspect of the invention, a trimming mechanism trims one end of the peel-off paper-backed adhesive tape, while a peeling mechanism peels off a peel-off paper from the peel-off paper-backed adhesive tape. The driving force is transmitted to the trimming mechanism and the peeling mechanism from a simple drive force. There is also provided a tape printing apparatus incorporating the tape processing device.

Peeling device, tape processing device incorporating the peeling device, and tape printing apparatus incorporating the tape processing device

The present invention relates to a character information processor having a function of printing an input character string on a print medium. The character information processor of the present invention includes print-instruction issuing unit for issuing a print-halt-instruction-waiting consecutive-print instruction of repeatedly printing a same character string on the print medium until a print halt instruction is issued, and printing unit for repeatedly printing the same character string on the print medium when the print-halt-instruction-waiting consecutive-print instruction is issued. Also, the processor includes print-halt-instruction issuing unit for issuing a print halt instruction of halting the repeated printing conducted by the printing unit, and print halting unit for halting the repeated printing conducted by the printing unit when the print halt instruction is issued.

Character processing with indefinite continuous printing

When stoppage of printing on a tape is commanded, an automatic non-printing feed of the tape equal to the distance between the print head and a cutter is performed to enable cutting of the tape with minimum waste. Additionally the forming of leading and trailing margins on a printed tape less than the distance between the print head and cutter is enabled by providing deceleration and acceleration coupled with print pulse width variation corresponding to tape movement.

Tape printing device

There are provided a print image-forming method and device. Print image data of a dot matrix is formed in which print portions are represented by positive dots and blank portions are represented by negative dots. Basic image data formed in a manner such that when the basic image data is developed into a dot matrix, a group of image pixels formed by one of a set of positive dots and a set of negative dots is capable of representing a basic image, is read from a memory device. Developed image data item representative of the basic image is formed by developing the basic image data read from the memory device into a dot matrix which is smaller in size than the dot matrix of the print image data in at least one predetermined direction of a vertical direction and a horizontal direction. At least one shifted image data is formed by shifting the developed image data item by units of dots in the predetermine direction, and the print image data is formed by causing the developed image data item and the at least one shifted image data, to be superposed, upon one another, in a manner such that the group of image pixels overrides background pixels.

Print image-forming method and device

An apparatus and method for processing character information to be formed on a seal, restricted size label, or other printing medium provides for recognizing character string lengths exceeding a threshold length determined from the printing medium when an instruction for development is made. The character string is divided into two lines and developed on the printing medium. The character string is divided equally, at a mode change, or into lines with the first line being longer than the second line. Over-limit characters are displayed in a different manner distinguishing from in-limit characters.

There is provided a stamp-making method and apparatus therefor for making a square or circular stamp which can be accurately imprinted with reference to a top-indicating mark provided thereon, without discriminating the orientation of the stamp image engraved on the stamp surface thereof. There is formed first direction-oriented image data having each of a plurality of component elements of plate-making image data oriented in a first direction. When it is detected that it is difficult to discriminate orientation of the stamp body having the mark without reference to the mark, an instruction is given for arranging the image data in a manner oriented in a second direction. According to the instruction, the first direction-oriented image data is converted to a second direction-oriented image data in which the component elements of the plating-making image data are oriented in the second direction. A stamp body is engraved by the use of the second direction-oriented image data to thereby make a stamp.

Stamp-making method and apparatus

A stamp-making apparatus is provided in which a transparent presser plate is arranged such that the presser plate is parallel with a stamp-making object material, an ink ribbon having a stamp image formed thereon is urged against the stamp-making object material via the presser plate, and exposure of the stamp-making object material to light is carried out via the ink ribbon as a mask. A ribbon feeder rolls out an ink ribbon wound around one end portion thereof to a position facing the stamp-making object material, and then rolls up the ink ribbon around another end portion thereof. A relative translation of the presser plate and the stamp-making object material is made toward each other by moving at least one of the presser plate and the stamp-making object material to thereby urge the ink ribbon against the stamp-making object material. Guide means guides the ink ribbon when the ink ribbon is fed, to space between the presser plate and the stamp-making object material. Tension of the ink ribbon is regulated in a manner linked to operation of the relative translation of the presser plate and the stamp-making object material made toward each other.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Tomoyuki Shimmura