Dot printer with changeable quality dot pattern

Claim 1

A dot printer comprising: a print head for printing input data on a recording medium; a print head moving means for laterally reciprocating the print head relative to the recording medium at a normal speed and a fast speed; a print head driving means for driving the print head; a storage means for storing predetermined basic dot patterns; and a printing operation control means for reading the basic dot pattern corresponding to input data, producing a printing dot pattern on the basis of the basic dot pattern stored in the storage means, and controlling the print head moving means and the print head driving means according to the printing dot pattern to print the input data on the recording medium at a normal speed using the basic dot pattern as the printing dot pattern; wherein the printing operation control means comprises: a reference dot pattern producing means for producing a reference dot pattern by replicating each column continuously n times wherein an arrangement of the replicated columns is the same as that of the basic dot pattern; and a printing dot pattern producing means for producing a printing dot pattern, for printing during fast speed movement of the print head, on the basis of the reference dot pattern by omitting m dots after a head dot and after remaining successive dots of a continuous dot row of the reference dot pattern to create a printing dot pattern comprising continuous dot rows of alternating printed dots having gaps therebetween as a result of the m omitted dots, m and n being positive integers.