Matrix printer

Abstract

In matrix printers, the printing elements in the printing head are frequently arranged so that they do not correspond to the printing raster of the characters to be printed so that the informations delivered for each time a printing column at the same time must be delayed a time. For this purpose, a delay device is assigned to each printing element of a matrix printer, the delay times for each device representing paths mutually depending upon the orientation and spacing of the printing elements in the printing head and being determined by the time interval between a common writing pulse and individual element read-out pulses, which are produced by a shift register, in which the writing pulse is shifted at a relatively high rate depending upon the head position, the read-out pulses for the elements being produced by tappings on the shift register. By, by variation of the time intervals between the writing pulses, the density of the printing raster can readily be changed over from one character or one printing column to the other. By changing the tappings on the shift register, and thus the delays to the print elements, the inclination of the printing raster can be adjusted, for example, for printing in italics. More particularly for printing in opposite directions of movement of the printing head, the delay devices are preceded and followed by a switch matrix, which reverses the assignment of the delay information of the respective printing devices to the delay elements.