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US 4,376,588 AGranted
Bi-directional serial printer with look-ahead
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorDennis L. Moeller
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A bi-directional serial printer has a look-ahead feature which determines the distance between the margin of the line being printed and the margin, in the direction of the print head travel, of the next line to be printed. If this distance is less than a predetermined number, print head motion continues after printing the last character on the present line until the print head reaches the margin position for the next line.
Claims5
Print head control means to which a series of character codes are provided manifesting characters to be printed comprising:
- buffer means for storing said character codes for a plurality of lines to be printed, the codes for separate lines stored in said buffer means being separated by a header code manifesting at least the left and right margin positions of the next line stored;
- moving print head means for printing characters manifested by said character codes;
- and
- processor means for controlling said print head movement, said processor means being operative during printing of a given line of characters for comparing the margin position of said next line in the direction of print head movement with the margin position of said given line, said processor means being operative to continue movement of said print head in the present direction of movement if said margin in the direction of print head movement of said next line is within a given number of character spaces of said margin of said given line.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.