System for printing labels and tags, and a converter used therein

Claim 1

A converter for being electrically connected between a computer and a label printer used for printing price tags and labels, said converter comprising a signal loop-back means coupled to said computer for looping back to said computer any meaningless or unsuitable signals picked up by the label printer; a print control command discard means coupled to said computer for discarding print control commands from said computer which are not required by the label printer; a fault-select signal conversion means coupled between said computer and printer for converting fault signs from said label printer to select signals for said computer; a paper-end or carbon-end to busy signal conversion means coupled between said computer and printer for converting a paper-end or carbon-end signal from the label printer to a busy signal for said computer; a logic reversal means coupled between said computer and said printer for converting select signals from said computer to positive logic for output to the label printer; a control code conversion means coupled between said computer and printer which presets a special character string in said computer which when outputted is converted to a control code for sending to the label printer; an image data-standard code conversion means coupled between said computer and printer which converts character and numeric image data sent from said computer to standard codes for said printer; a common-use kanji code discriminating means coupled to said computer for identifying common-use kanji character codes; a special character pattern conversion means coupled to said computer for converting second level kanji codes to special character patterns; and a ROM coupled to said special character pattern conversion means for matching the image data input using said image data and standard code conversion means with standard codes, storing it as font image data, and recording said special character patterns.