JPH07246724A - Printer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain good printing quality by a method wherein it is judged that a pattern in a print region has only characters, bar codes or mixtures of them and an applied energy of each heating resistor of a print head is set based on the judged result. CONSTITUTION:When a keyboard 3 is operated to instruct the starting of the printing, a tape printer 1 firstly executes the initialization of a dot number counter N. Next, it judges whether a pattern of a print region that is formed at a time by present heat resistors has a property of characters, bar codes or mixture of them. In accordance with the judged result, a reduced energizing time, judged dot number and the like are set and a value obtained by adding the present dot number NL to the number of the counter N is set to the counter N, then the dot number counter N and judged dot number M are compared with each other. When the condition is N<M, one line of printing is performed and when the condition is N>M, the reduction control of the energizing time is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a printer for printing characters and bar codes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a printing apparatus for printing characters and bar codes, a printing head in which a plurality of heating elements are arranged in a straight line, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 163585/1982, is disclosed. 2. Description of the Related Art There is known a printing apparatus that includes a paper feed mechanism that moves a thermal paper in a direction orthogonal to an array direction of heat generating elements of a print head, and that prints a barcode and characters in a dot pattern on the thermal paper. For example, in FIG.
In order to create the printing tape 119a in which the bar code and the character are mixed as shown in (a), first, the bar code line counter is set according to the length of the bar code, and then the heating elements arranged in a line. A predetermined heating element of the group 115a (the arrow indicates the arrangement direction) is energized for a short energization time, the counter is decremented, and this process is repeated until the counter reaches zero. Then, when the counter reaches zero, the number line counter is set according to the length of the character, and a predetermined heating element of the heating element group 115a is energized for a long energization time, and the counter is set to zero as before. This process is repeated until it becomes.

According to such a printing apparatus, when a bar code and a character are printed, when a bar code having a large printing area is printed, the energization time is shortened to reduce the operating energy, thereby extending the electrical life of the print head. In addition, good printing can be performed without lowering the printing quality.

[0004]

However, in the above printing apparatus, for example, the printing tape 1 shown in FIG. 10 (b) is used.
When the pattern of the printing area formed at once by the heating element group 115a is a mixture of characters and barcodes as in 19b, some of the heating elements arranged in a line print barcodes and the other part. Will print characters,
In this case as well, it was not possible to respond appropriately because the energization time of either the character or the bar code had to be dealt with. Therefore, in such a case, there is a problem that the above effect cannot be sufficiently obtained.

Further, in the above-mentioned printing apparatus, although the bar code has a shorter energization time than that of the character, the heat storage amount of the print head increases as the number of energized heating elements increases. Is printed,
There is also a problem that the applied energy becomes excessive on the lower side at the end of printing as compared with the upper side at the start of printing, and the print quality is impaired.

Further, although a printing apparatus for reducing the applied energy is known, the same reduction control is performed regardless of whether the pattern of the printing area formed by the heating element group 115a at a time is a character or a bar code. However, it is difficult to stably obtain good print quality.

The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is possible to obtain stable print quality by appropriately responding to the pattern of the print area formed at one time by the heating elements of the print head. An object of the present invention is to provide a printing device that can be used.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, a printing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention, as illustrated in FIG. 1, is formed by a print head having a plurality of heating elements and the heating elements at once. A pattern discriminating means for discriminating whether the pattern of the printing region is only characters, only barcodes, or a mixture of characters and barcodes, and the print head based on the discrimination result by the pattern discriminating means. The energy setting means for setting the applied energy to be applied to each heating element, and the applied energy set by the energy setting means is applied to each heating element of the print head corresponding to the pattern to be printed. A print control means for forming the pattern on the medium.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the printer according to the first aspect, wherein the energy setting unit includes a counting unit that counts the number of heating elements applied by the printing control unit, and the counting unit. When the count number reaches a predetermined number set based on the determination result by the pattern determination means, a decrease control unit that subtracts a predetermined amount set based on the determination result by the pattern determination means from the applied energy, It is characterized by having.

A printer according to a third aspect of the present invention is the printer according to the second aspect, wherein the reduction control unit sets a lower limit of the applied energy in the reduction control unit based on a determination result by the pattern determination unit. A value is provided.

[0011]

In the printing apparatus according to the present invention, the pattern discriminating means determines whether the pattern of the printing area formed at one time by the heating element of the print head is only characters, only bar codes, or characters and bar codes. It is discriminated whether or not the two are mixed, and the energy setting means sets the applied energy based on the discrimination result. That is, it is possible to set the applied energy appropriately corresponding to the pattern of the print area. Then, the print control means forms the pattern on the print medium by applying the applied energy to each heating element corresponding to the pattern in the print area.

In the printing apparatus according to the second aspect, the energy setting means sets the applied energy as follows. That is, the counting unit counts the number of heating elements applied by the print control unit, and the decrease control unit applies the applied voltage when the count number reaches a predetermined number set based on the determination result by the pattern determination unit. A predetermined amount set based on the discrimination result by the pattern discriminating means is subtracted from the energy, and the value is set as the applied energy.

In the printing apparatus according to the third aspect, the energy setting means sets the applied energy as follows. That is, the counting unit counts the number of heating elements applied by the print control unit, and the decrease control unit applies the applied voltage when the count number reaches a predetermined number set based on the determination result by the pattern determination unit. A predetermined amount set based on the determination result by the pattern determining means is subtracted from the energy, and the value is set as applied energy, but the value is less than the lower limit value set based on the determination result by the pattern determining means. It is controlled not to become.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In this embodiment, the present invention is applied to an English-only tape printer capable of printing a large number of characters such as alphabetic characters and symbols and bar codes on a printing tape. 2 is a perspective view of the tape printer, FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the inside of the main body frame, and FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system.

As shown in FIG. 2, a keyboard 3 is arranged in the front part of the main body frame 2 of the tape printer 1, and a printing mechanism PM is arranged in the main body frame 2 behind the keyboard 3. Immediately behind the keyboard 3, a liquid crystal display (LCD) 22 capable of displaying characters and symbols is provided. Further, a release button 4 for opening the cover frame 6 when the tape storage cassette CS mounted on the printing mechanism PM is attached / detached is provided immediately behind the LCD 22, and a printing tape is provided on the left side of the cover frame 6. A cutting operation button 5 for manually cutting 19 is provided.

On the keyboard 3, character keys for inputting alphabets, numbers, symbols, etc., space key, return key, line feed key, cursor movement key for moving the cursor key to the right or left, and printing. A size setting key for arbitrarily setting the character size, and the arbitrary character size is 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96
6 character size keys for setting the dot size of, the automatic setting key for automatically setting the character size to be printed according to the tape width or the number of lines of the printing tape 19, the print key for instructing printing, and various setting processes. The execution key to exit
A power key for turning the power on and off is provided.

The keyboard 3 is also provided with bar code keys for setting the bar code mode.
By pressing this bar code key, the text mode for inputting ordinary characters or symbols is switched to the bar code mode for inputting the bar code mode. This bar code mode is described in detail in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-177898, so that it will be briefly described here.

When the bar code key is pressed, the mode is switched to the bar code mode and the bar code data input screen is displayed. In this state, press the numeric keys or the like to input the bar code data. When the enter key is pressed after the desired bar code data is input, the bar code start code, the input bar code data, and the bar code end code are stored in the text memory 61, which will be described later, and the bar code input mode is ended. Switch to text mode.

Next, the printing mechanism PM will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 3. A rectangular tape storage cassette CS is detachably attached to the printing mechanism PM, and the tape storage cassette CS is transparent. Laminating film 7
The tape spool 8 around which is wound, the ribbon supply spool 10 around which the print ribbon 9 is wound, the take-up spool 11 around which the print ribbon 9 is wound, and the double-sided tape 12 having the same width as the laminate film 7 are peeled off. A supply spool 13 wound with paper as the outside and a joining roller 14 for joining the laminate film 7 and the double-sided tape 12 are rotatably provided. The double-sided tape 12 is
An adhesive layer is formed on both sides of the base tape, and release paper is attached to the adhesive layer on one side of the base tape.

The laminated film 7 and the printing ribbon 9
A thermal head 15 is erected at a position where and overlap,
The platen roller 16 that presses the laminate film 7 and the print ribbon 9 against the thermal head 15, and the feed roller 17 that presses the laminate film 7 and the double-sided tape 12 against the joining roller 14 to create the printing tape 19 are the main body. Support 18 pivotally attached to the frame 2
It is rotatably pivoted to. This thermal head 15
Includes a heating element group 15a composed of 128 heating elements.
(See FIG. 6) are arranged in a row in the vertical direction.

Therefore, when the tape feed motor 47 (see FIG. 4) is driven in the predetermined rotation direction, the joining roller 14 and the take-up spool 11 are driven in synchronization with each other in the predetermined rotation direction, and the heating element group 15a is energized. A predetermined heating element generates heat and the print ribbon 9 is thermally transferred. As a result, characters and barcodes are printed on the laminated film 7 by a plurality of dot rows, and the laminated film 7 is tape-fed in the tape feeding direction A as the printing tape 19 with the double-sided tape 12 bonded thereto. , As shown in FIG. 3, it is sent out of the main body frame 2. For details of the printing mechanism PM, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-106555.

Next, the manual cutting device 30 for cutting the printing tape 19 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 3. A plate-shaped auxiliary frame 31 is erected just inside the main body frame 2. The fixed blade 32 is attached to the auxiliary frame 31.
Is fixed upwards. An operation lever 34 extending in the front-rear direction is attached to the pivot shaft 33 fixed to the auxiliary frame 31.
Is rotatably supported near the front end of the
A movable blade 35 is attached so as to face the fixed blade 32 at a portion corresponding to the front side of the pivot shaft 33.
Further, the rear end portion of the operation lever 34 is provided with the cutting operation button 5
The operating lever 34 is always located below the movable blade 35.
Is elastically biased by a spring member (not shown) in a direction away from the fixed blade 32. Further, the operation lever 3 is pushed to the front end of the operation lever 34 by pressing the cutting operation button 5.
A disconnection switch 41 is attached to detect that 4 has rotated for disconnection.

After printing on the printing tape 19,
Since the printing tape 19 extends between the fixed blade 32 and the movable blade 35 and extends outside the main body frame 2, when the cutting operation button 5 is pressed downward, the movable blade 35 is moved via the operation lever 34. These two blades 3 are brought close to the fixed blade 32.
At 2, 35, the printing tape 19 is cut.

Here, as the printing tape 19 fed from the tape storage cassette CS, the tape width is 6 mm and 9
There are 5 types available: mm, 12mm, 18mm, 24mm. Further, for each tape width, the color of the base tape forming the double-sided tape 12 (hereinafter, abbreviated to the color of the double-sided tape 12 at the end. The color of this base tape is the ground color of the tape) and the printing ribbon 9. The ink color of "black",
Plural types of tape cassettes prepared by arbitrarily combining "red", "blue", "yellow" ... "white" are prepared.

Then, on the bottom wall of these tape storage cassettes CS, the first projecting piece 20 in which three projecting claws are combined in order to detect any of these five kinds of tape widths.
And the colors of the multi-sided double-sided tape 12 and the printing ribbon 9
In order to detect which combination with the ink color, the second projecting piece 21 in which five projecting claws are combined is provided. Then, in the main body frame 2, a tape width sensor 43 (see FIG. 4) that detects the tape width from the state of the protruding claw of the first protruding piece 20 and the double-sided tape 12 from the state of the protruding claw of the second protruding piece 21. A tape color sensor 44 (see FIG. 4) for detecting a color combination with the print ribbon 9 is attached.

Further, a cassette switch 42 (see FIG. 4) is provided on the main body frame 2 in order to detect that a plurality of types of tape storage cassettes CS have been selectively mounted.
Is attached. Next, the control system of the tape printer 1 is configured as shown in the block diagram of FIG.

Input / output interface 50 of controller C
Includes a keyboard 3, a disconnection switch 41, a cassette switch 42, a tape width sensor 43, a tape color sensor 44, and a display controller having a video RAM 24 for outputting display data to a liquid crystal display (LCD) 22 ( LCDC) 23 and warning buzzer 4
5, a drive circuit 46 for driving the thermal head 15, a drive circuit 48 for driving the thermal head 15, and a drive circuit 49 for driving the tape feed motor 47 are connected to each other.

The control device C includes a CPU 52 and this CPU.
Input / output interface 50, CGROM 53, ROM 5 connected to 52 via a bus 51 such as a data bus
4, 55 and RAM 60. CGR
In the OM 53, dot pattern data for display is stored in association with code data for each of a large number of characters.

ROM (dot pattern data memory) 5
In FIG. 4, dot pattern data for printing is classified for each typeface (Gothic typeface, Mincho typeface, etc.) for each of a large number of characters for printing characters such as alphabetic characters and symbols, and for each typeface. 7 types (1
6, 24, 32, 48, 64, 96 and 128 dot sizes) are stored in association with the code data.

In the ROM 55, the display controller (LCDC) 2 is associated with code data of characters such as characters, numbers and symbols input from the keyboard 3.
Display drive control program for controlling 3 and print buffer 6
A print drive control program for sequentially reading the data of No. 4 to drive the thermal head 15 and the tape feed motor 47,
A print control program, which will be described later, peculiar to the present application is stored.

The text data 61 input from the keyboard 3 is stored in the text memory 61 of the RAM 60. Text pointer (this content is the pointer value TP) 6
2 stores one address of the text memory 61. The print character size memory 63 stores data of the character size used for the set printing. The print buffer 64 stores print dot pattern data of a plurality of characters and symbols as print data.

Next, the print control process performed by the controller C of the tape printer 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the print key provided on the keyboard 3 is pressed to start printing, the dot number counter N is first initialized (cleared in this embodiment) (S10).
0). The dot number counter N counts the number of heating elements energized from the start of printing to the end of printing over time, that is, the number of dots is accumulated.

Subsequently, it is determined whether the attributes of the pattern of the print area formed at once by the heating element this time are all characters, all bar codes, or both characters and bar codes (S110). In the present embodiment, the pattern of the print area means a pattern when one line is printed by the heating element groups 15a arranged in a row, in other words, a line pattern.

This line pattern will be specifically described with reference to FIG. The plurality of heating element groups 15a are arranged on the thermal head 15 in the direction of the arrow to form one line. In order to print the printing tape 19 shown in FIG. 6A, in the range R1, the pattern of the printing area in which each heating element group 15a forming one line pattern, that is, one line, prints at once is the text memory 61 of the RAM 60. By inquiring the code data stored in, it is recognized that it is composed of only the barcode. Therefore, in this case, the attribute is determined to be only the barcode in S110. In addition, "★ 1234 ★" added below the barcode
Is treated as part of the bar code, not as a character. On the other hand, in the range R2, each line pattern is similarly recognized to be composed of only letters (alphabets). Therefore, in this case, the attribute is determined to be only characters in S110.

On the other hand, the printing tape 19 shown in FIG. 6 (b) is input over a plurality of lines, and the barcode is input in the first line and the characters are input in the second line. At this time, each line pattern is recognized as being composed of a mixture of barcodes and characters by referring to the code data stored in the text memory 61. Therefore, in this case, the attribute is determined to be a mixture of a character and a barcode in S110. When inputting over a plurality of lines, it is possible to move to the next line each time the line feed key is turned on after inputting a character or the like.

In accordance with the attributes determined as described above in S110, the energization time T, the reduced energization time Ts, the minimum energization time Tm, and the determination dot number M are set as the energization time T.
1, T2, T3, reduced energization times Ts1, Ts2, Ts3, minimum energization times Tm1, Tm2, Tm3, determination dot numbers M1, M2
M3 is set (S121 to S123). These values are obtained empirically and can be read from a preset table. Details will be described later.

Subsequently, a value obtained by adding the present dot number NL to the dot number counter N is newly set in the dot number counter N (S130). Here, the number of dots NL at this time refers to the number of heating elements to be energized this time in the heating element group 15a. Then, the dot number counter N is compared with the determination dot number M (S140), and if it is less than the determination dot number (YES in S140), printing for one line is executed (S180).

On the other hand, if the number of judgment dots is greater than or equal to (S140
NO), so-called reduction control is performed (S150 to S17).
0). That is, a value obtained by subtracting the reduced energization time Ts from the energization time T is newly set as the energization time T and the dot number counter N is reset (S150). It is empirically known that the reduction control is executed by storing a predetermined amount of heat in the thermal head 15 when the determination dot number M is reached. Energy is not applied to the heating element,
This is to maintain good print quality.

Subsequently, the energization time T is compared with the minimum energization time Tm which is the lower limit value (S160). If the energization time T is larger than the minimum energization time Tm (NO in S160), 1 is set by the energization time T. Execute printing of lines (S1
80). On the other hand, if the minimum energization time Tm or less (S160
YES), the minimum energization time Tm is set to the energization time T (S170), and printing for one line is executed by the energization time T (S180). As a result, the minimum required energization time can be secured, and letters and bar codes are not printed faintly.

Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the printing of the line having the attribute determined in S110 is completed (S1).
90). Such a determination is made, for example, by determining whether or not the attribute of the line to be printed next is the same as the attribute, or the number of lines having the attribute is set in advance in the line counter. This can be done by decrementing this counter after printing one line and determining whether or not the value of the counter has become zero.

If it is determined that all the lines having the attribute are not printed (NO in S190), the processes in S130 and the subsequent steps are performed again. On the other hand, if it is determined that printing has been performed (YES in S190), this processing ends. FIG. 7 shows a time chart when this print control process is executed.

The relationship between the energization time T1 and the energization time T2 is T1 in consideration of the fact that the number of heat generating elements that generate heat at a time is large in the case of only the bar code as compared with the case of only the character, so that the heat storage amount increases. It is preferable to set> T2. On the other hand, when the attributes are mixed, the energization time T3 is preferably set between T1 and T2 in consideration of the heat storage amount. For example, when the substantially average value of T1 and T2 is adopted as T3, there is no risk that the barcode will be crushed and printed, and that there will be no possibility that characters will be printed faintly.
Since a person generally recognizes a character, even if the character is printed faintly, the person can recognize the character. On the other hand, since the barcode is recognized by the barcode reader, if the barcode is crushed and printed, it becomes unreadable. Therefore, it should be prioritized to keep the print quality of the bar code better than the characters. In view of this situation, it is preferable to set T3 between T1 and T2 and near T2. If such setting is difficult in terms of storage capacity, etc., set T3 to T2. Good.

Further, the above-described reduced energizing time Ts1, Ts2, T
It is preferable that s3 and the determination dot numbers M1, M2, and M3 are set so that the time chart has the relationship shown in FIG. That is, when the attribute is only a bar code, the number of heat generating elements that generate heat at a time is larger than that when only a character is used, and the amount of heat stored by energizing once is large. Therefore, it is preferable to take a large reduction rate. Therefore, Ts2 / M2> Ts1 / M
It is preferable to set each value to be 1. on the other hand,
When the attributes are a mixture of characters and barcodes, it is preferable to take an intermediate value. For example, Ts3 / M3 as Ts2
When a substantially average value of / M2 and Ts1 / M1 is adopted, the printed barcode is less likely to be crushed and the characters are less likely to be blurred. It should be noted that for the same reason as above, priority should be given to maintaining good print quality of the bar code rather than the character, so that Ts3 / M3 is equal to Ts2 / M2 and Ts1 /
It is preferable to set it in the vicinity of Ts2 / M2 between M1 and Ts2 / M2 when it is difficult to make such setting in terms of storage capacity. Further, regarding the minimum energization time Tm, it is preferable to set each value so as to have a relationship of Tm1> Tm3 ≧ Tm2 in consideration of the heat storage amount described above. In this way, by setting the energization time and the like according to each attribute, it is possible to obtain stable print quality by appropriately corresponding to each attribute.

Here, the correspondence between the components of this embodiment and the present invention will be clarified. The thermal head 15 of this embodiment
Corresponds to the print head of the present invention, and the CPU 52 corresponds to the pattern control means, the energy setting means, and the print control means. Further, S110 of FIG. 5 corresponds to the process of the pattern control unit, S121 to S170 correspond to the process of the energy setting unit, and S180 corresponds to the process of the print control unit. Also,
S140 is the processing of the counting section, and S140 and S150.
Corresponds to the processing of the decrease control unit. Further, the energization time T corresponds to the applied energy, and the determination dot number M and the decrease energization time Ts correspond to the predetermined number and the predetermined amount in the decrease control unit.

It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments and can be implemented in various modes without departing from the technical scope of the present invention.
For example, when characters or the like are input over multiple lines, the attributes of each line pattern in the entire range are determined in advance, and if the attributes of all line patterns are only characters (or only barcodes), the range It is determined that the attribute is only the character (or only the barcode), and if the attribute of at least one line is the mixture of the character and the barcode, it is determined that the attribute of the range is the mixture of the character and the barcode, and S12
You may perform the process after 1. As a specific example, if the attribute is judged in a state where the data input over a plurality of lines is expanded in the print buffer 64, such a judgment becomes possible. By this determination, even if the input start column of the barcode on the first line and the input start column of the characters on the second line do not match as shown in FIG. Since the process is executed with the line pattern having the same attribute, the attribute does not change during printing, and there is no risk of uneven print density.

With respect to the flowchart of FIG. 5, S1
In 21 to S123, only the energization time T may be set to predetermined energization times T1, T2, T3 according to the attribute, and the program may be set so that the process of S180 is immediately performed. Even if such a process is performed, it is possible to obtain an effect that the pattern of the print area formed at one time by the heating element group 15a can appropriately correspond to each attribute of only characters, only bar codes, and a mixture of characters and bar codes. However, energizing time T
Since the decrease control of No. is not performed, the above-mentioned embodiment can obtain a superior effect.

Further, after the processing of S150 in FIG. 5, S160.
The processing of S180 may be performed without performing steps S170 and S170. For example, if the energization time T does not become the minimum energization time Tm or less even if the number of lines is limited and the process of S150 is performed, even if such a process is performed, the same effect as that of the present embodiment is obtained. can get.

Furthermore, in S170 of FIG. 5, the energization time T
The minimum energization time Tm is set to
Alternatively, the previous energization time T may be set. In this case as well, the minimum required energization time can be ensured, and the effect that letters and bar codes are not printed faintly is obtained.

[0049]

As described in detail above, according to the printing device of the first to third aspects, the printing device appropriately responds to the pattern of the printing area formed at one time by the heating element of the printing head.
Stable print quality can be obtained.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a tape printer.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the inside of the main body frame.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a control system.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of print control processing.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a printing tape.

FIG. 7 is a time chart when print control processing is executed.

FIG. 8 is a time chart for each attribute.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a tape printed over a plurality of lines.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Tape printing device, 9 ... Printing ribbon, 15 ... Thermal head,
15a ... Heating element group, 19 ... Printing tape,
52 ... CPU, C ... control device,
N: Dot number counter, N
L: number of dots, PM: printing mechanism, T: energization time, T
m: minimum energization time, Ts: reduced energization time,
M: number of judgment dots,

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code Internal reference number FI Technical display location G06K 1/12 C

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A print head having a plurality of heating elements, and whether a pattern of a printing area formed at a time by the heating elements is only characters, only barcodes, or a mixture of characters and barcodes. Pattern discriminating means for discriminating whether or not it is, energy setting means for setting the applied energy to be applied to each heating element of the print head based on the discrimination result by the pattern discriminating means, and the print head corresponding to the pattern A printing apparatus, comprising: print control means for forming the pattern on a print medium by applying the applied energy set by the energy setting means to each heating element. 2. The energy setting unit counts the number of heating elements applied by the print control unit, and a predetermined number set by the count unit based on the determination result of the pattern determination unit. The printing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: a reduction control unit that subtracts a predetermined amount set based on a determination result by the pattern determination unit from the applied energy when the number reaches the number. 3. The lower limit of the applied energy in the reduction control unit is set based on the discrimination result by the pattern discriminating means.
The printing device described.