A printer of the automatically interchangeable character wheel type includes a platen (10) formed lengthwisely of the printer to support one surface of a printing sheet, and a carriage (7) guided so as to be reciprocally movable along the platen (10). The carriage (7) carriers thereon a containing housing (5) for containing character wheels (4) therein, a first shift device for shifting the character wheels (4) in the containing housing (5) to a printing position, a printing hammer (1) for impacting the characters of a character wheel (4) in the printing position, and a second shift device for shifting an ink ribbon (3) to a first position for printing and a second position for standby by the same drive source as a power source for driving the first shift device.

A printer of the automatically interchangeable character wheel type includes a platen (10) formed lengthwisely of the printer to support one surface of a printing sheet, and a carriage (7) guided so as to be reciprocally movable along the platen (10). The carriage (7) carriers thereon a containing housing (5) for containing character wheels (4) therein, a first shift device for shifting the character wheels (4) in the containing housing (5) to a printing position, a printing hammer (1) for impacting the characters of a character wheel (4) in the printing position, and a second shift device for shifting an ink ribbon (3) to a first position for printing and a second position for standby by the same drive source as a power source for driving the first shift device.

57 A dot-matrix printer of the invention uses a font cartridge unit (22) storing in advance character pattern data corresponding to characters other than standard characters. The font cartridge unit (22) comprises a ROM (43) storing character pattern data in a storage area in units of pages. A CPU (14) sets a given page address in a page address register (30) in the font cartridge unit (22) in the case of dot printing of characters other than standard characters. The CPU (14) reads out desired character pattern data from the storage area of the ROM (43) corresponding to the preset page address, and stores the readout data in a work memory (17). A printing mechanism controller (18) controls a printing mechanism including a print head (11) in accordance with the character pattern data stored in the work memory (17) so as to execute dot printing of, e.g., high-density characters other than standard characters.

An automatic typefont loader is sequenced to change the printwheel typefont of a printer. An elongated rack (55) supports plural picker holders (53) along its length and is normally located beneath the platen (13) of the printer. Typefonts (51) to be exchanged are held by the picker holders. During an exchanging sequence, the typefont carrier which is positioned along the platen to effect printing at discrete printing positions is positioned to a discrete print position adjacent an empty picker holderfor a typefont unloading operation. The elongated rack (55) is then elevated so that the empty picker holder contacts the typefont. The typefont is removed from its carrier by moving the typefont carrier perpendicular to its normal motion. The picker holder rack (55) is then withdrawn and the now empty typefont carrier (27) is positioned to a second discrete printing position adjacent a selected typefont located on a picker holder. The picker holder rack (55) is elevated and the typefont carrier moves toward the selected picker holder to retrieve a typefont. The operation is completed with the withdrawal of the rack (55) to its normal position beneath the platen.

An under-the-cover automatic font changing apparatus, for a daisy wheel printer utilizing a print element (2) housed in a cartridge (1) during printing, is adapted to exchange print elements in the cartridge. It includes an elongated and vertically oriented rack (91), a plurality of print element holding means (60) located along the rack, drive means, (73) and (98), for vertically elevating and lowering the rack in a single plane, and means for causing a selection motor drive hub included in the printer to be translated toward and away from the print element for a print element change. During printing, the drive hub is for rotating the print element housed in the cartridge. Cooperating with the apparatus is a carrier (90) positionable along and above the rack and carrying the cartridge. The cartridge has spring means included therein for cooperating with the drive hub, upon insertion of one of the holding means into the cartridge, for installing a print element included in the cartridge on the holding means for removal of the print element from the cartridge, and removing a print element from the holding means for loading the cartridge with a print element.

A printer employing a daisy-type type wheel (27). On a hub (28) of the type wheel a pin (40) is slidably disposed and is backwardly biased by a spring (41) to protrude from the rear surface of the hub. In a central opening (32, 33) of the hub a hair pin spring (34) having a pair of arms is disposed. The type wheel is fixed on a drive shaft (2a) of a motor (2) through a coupling element (4). The coupling element is provided with a projection (5, 6) which is fitted into the opening of the hub and engaged with the arms of the hair pin spring by snap action to latch the type wheel against the drive shaft in axial direction. In the axially latched state the pin is protruded from the front surface of the hub, resisting the resilient force of the spring, by the coupling element. When the coupling element is rotated more than one time the protruded pin is engaged with a stationary projection (18) to prevent the type wheel from rotating, with a result that the pin is aligned with a notch (7) formed on the coupling element and fitted into the same for latching the type wheel against the drive shaft in rotational direction.

Device for shifting a bifurcated character selection rack (12) between a first position and a second position, thereby engaging alternate portions (14, 16) of the rack with a pinion (18) controlling the rotation of the typehead (10) of a typewriter. The rack shifting mechanism (58,60,46,32) is controlled by a direct link (62) to the keyboard of the typewriter which responds to movement of a shift key-lever. The mechanism performs a force multiplication and, at the same time, a displacement division function to reduce a relatively large keylever and link displacement to a relatively small rack displacement. The rack shifting mechanism translates the rack to engage the alternate rack portion with pinion (18) thereby reversing the rotation of the pinion and allowing characters to be selected from the opposite hemisphere ofthetype element in response to a character selection input.

An automatic typefont loader is sequenced to change the printwheel typefont of a printer. An elongated rack (55) supports plural picker holders (53) along its length and is normally located beneath the platen (13) of the printer. Typefonts (51) to be exchanged are held by the picker holders. During an exchanging sequence, the typefont carrier which is positioned along the platen to effect printing at discrete printing positions is positioned to a discrete print position adjacent an empty picker holderfor a typefont unloading operation. The elongated rack (55) is then elevated so that the empty picker holder contacts the typefont. The typefont is removed from its carrier by moving the typefont carrier perpendicular to its normal motion. The picker holder rack (55) is then withdrawn and the now empty typefont carrier (27) is positioned to a second discrete printing position adjacent a selected typefont located on a picker holder. The picker holder rack (55) is elevated and the typefont carrier moves toward the selected picker holder to retrieve a typefont. The operation is completed with the withdrawal of the rack (55) to its normal position beneath the platen.

Auf einer Speicherschreibmaschine mit wechselbarem Typenträger (7) soll auf einem Aufzeichnungsträger (8) ein Text mit Schriftzeichen erstellt werden, die auf verschiedenen Typenträgern angeordnet sind. Dazu wird der Text mit einem der Typenträger geschrieben, wobei vor allen Textstellen, die mit den Zeichen eines anderen Typenträgers geschrieben werden sollen, ein Funktionsbefehl erster Art eingegeben wird. Der danach eingegebene Text wird im Speicher (4) abgelegt, das Schreibwerk führt für jedes Zeichen einen Leerschritt aus, das Zeichen wird aber nicht abgedruckt. Am Ende der Texteingabe wird der Typenträger (7) gewechselt, woraufhin ein Funktionsbefehl zweiter Art ein speichergesteuertes Positionieren des Schreibwerkes in die Textlücken und positionsgerechtes Ausschreiben der Zeichen veranlaßt.

Device for shifting a bifurcated character selection rack (12) between a first position and a second position, thereby engaging alternate portions (14, 16) of the rack with a pinion (18) controlling the rotation of the typehead (10) of a typewriter. The rack shifting mechanism (58,60,46,32) is controlled by a direct link (62) to the keyboard of the typewriter which responds to movement of a shift key-lever. The mechanism performs a force multiplication and, at the same time, a displacement division function to reduce a relatively large keylever and link displacement to a relatively small rack displacement. The rack shifting mechanism translates the rack to engage the alternate rack portion with pinion (18) thereby reversing the rotation of the pinion and allowing characters to be selected from the opposite hemisphere ofthetype element in response to a character selection input.

In a printer capable of printing either resident (30) or user selectable (34) fonts, the effective amount of font information that can be added to the printer is increased by eliminating the need for storing duplicate character information. A method and apparatus is described whereby for each user selectable font (36, 38, 40) a character address table (24) and character data are stored in a portion of the printer memory. The character address table (24) contains resident font addresses for duplicate characters and different addresses for user selectable font characters.

In a printer capable of printing either resident (30) or user selectable (34) fonts, the effective amount of font information that can be added to the printer is increased by eliminating the need for storing duplicate character information. A method and apparatus is described whereby for each user selectable font (36, 38, 40) a character address table (24) and character data are stored in a portion of the printer memory. The character address table (24) contains resident font addresses for duplicate characters and different addresses for user selectable font characters.

There is provided a font cartridge (11) which can be attached to and detached from a printer and has an ROM to store the character font pattern corresponding to the type style to be output in accordance with a print request from the printer. The ROM stores the print correction information corresponding to the character font pattern according to a predetermined type style which is read out of the ROM in response to the print request from the printer. The ROM also stores the storage management address information of the print correction information corresponding to the character font pattern. With this font cartridge, the high quality print character subjected to the print correction peculiar to each type style can be output every type style.