Disc printers

Claim 1

In a disc printer having a type character supporting disc rotatably mounted about an axis, type character supporting arms on said disc and extending radially about said disc and having type character supporting portions at their outer ends supporting type characters in relief, said characters having widths and sizes ranging from small to large, the outer ends of all of said character supporting portions being equally spaced apart around the entire disc, said character supporting portions being of varying widths, said widths being proportional to the widths of the type characters, whereby the size and inertia of the disc are reduced to a minimum, and hammer means for striking individual ones of said type characters against a printing surface for printing, indicating means associated with said support disc for indicating the angular printing position of each said type character, and reading means for reading said indicating means and for providing therefrom a signal to said hammer means for controlling the printing of each character so as to obtain a uniform distribution of the printed characters on the printed copy, said indicating means associated with each said type character and comprising means for indicating at least one printing characteristic of the associated said type character for causing printing that is dependent on said printing characteristic, said printing characteristic being the force, dependent on the area of each type character, with which said hammer means are to strike a respective said type character, said indicating means comprising an indicating structure formed on each arm, each indicating structure having a predetermined size responsive to said reading means which said reading means senses to thereby send signals to control the corresponding hammer force provided by said hammer means.