Did You Know...
...that while attempting to develop a super strong glue, 3M employee Spencer Silver accidentally developed a glue that was so weak it would barely hold two pieces of paper together? However, his colleague Art Fry needed the glue. Fry sang with his church choir and marked the pages of his hymnal with small scraps of paper that often fell out. He used Silver's glue to hold the papers in place. Today we call this invention Post-it Notes.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7167274 | Line leading from an arbitrary point Methods and apparatus implementing a technique for calculating line leading. In general, in one aspect, the technique includes receiving a first input specifying either a forward line leading model or a backward line leading mode and calculating line leading based o... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7168039 | Method and system for reducing the horizontal space required for displaying a column containing text data A method and system for reducing an amount of horizontal space required when displaying a plurality of columns on a display screen is disclosed. The at least one column of the plurality of columns has at least one entry containing text data. The method and system in... | 01/23/2007 |
| 7077492 | Method and device for optical sensor compensation, and apparatus incorporating the same An optical sensor has a sensor compensation to compensate for sensor degradation due to airborne contaminations in the operating environment. For example, in a thermal ink jet printing environment, the thermal ink jet operation produces misting or splashing of the t... | 07/18/2006 |
| 6910820 | Apparatus and method for handling linerless label tape An apparatus for printing on a continuous web of linerless tape defined by a print side for subsequent application to an article. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes a support for a continuous web of linerless tape; an undriven platen roller located downstream... | 06/28/2005 |
| 5647676 | Document processing device having ruling function A document processing device including a keyboard for inputting various data and instructions, a print mechanism for printing on a print medium dot pattern data which are developed in a print data buffer, a memory for storing input data of characters and ... | 07/15/1997 |
| 5462372 | Tape printer and method After a character key provided on a keyboard has been operated to input a text, it is determined using a cut-mark key or the like whether or not a cut mark exists. If it is determined that the cut mark exists, the position for printing the cut mark can be... | 10/31/1995 |
| 5374131 | Printer capable of spacing characters within frame A printer capable of printing characters within a frame is disclosed. In such printer, when the frame start key on the keyboard is depressed, the frame start code data is inserted in the text memory and when the frame terminating key on the keyboard is de... | 12/20/1994 |
| 5299872 | Printing machine with single line type face A printing machine comprising a printing head, a drive unit for printing, a mode setting unit, a data supplying unit, and a controller that controls the print drive unit based on data supplied from the data supplying unit is disclosed. The printing machin... | 04/05/1994 |
| 5133613 | Printing head using staggered arrangement needles A printing head includes solenoids arranged in an annular array for driving needles which are arranged in a zigzag array of two vertical columns. Solenoids corresponding to needles forming one of the columns are arranged on a semicircle of the annular arr... | 07/28/1992 |
| 5108203 | Printing apparatus including error correction and memory means, for printing vertical and horizontal form lines A printing apparatus includes a print wheel having a vertical lien character, a minus symbol character, and an underline symbol character. A first control moves a carriage on which the print wheel is mounted at one of two pitches and a second control adva... | 04/28/1992 |
| 5102243 | Printing apparatus for printing same size ruled line without regard to print pitch selection In the print apparatus of this invention, a ruled line is formed on a print medium as a line-up of lines printed by plural printing operation with a line type. A carriage on which the printing unit including the line type is installed is moved from the po... | 04/07/1992 |
| 5074684 | Dot printer device having a control unit to print horizontal lines A dot printer device is disclosed, in which in order to print a horizontal ruled line, paper feed data for placing the head pin of a printing head at a predetermined position on a printing paper, dot pin data indicative of a dot pin specified on the basis... | 12/24/1991 |
| 5035521 | Envelope printing mechanism The elements of a printing mechanism, including a platen, print head and drive motors, are constructed and arranged to provide a clearance permitting an envelope to remain entirely in a flat condition in a plane tangent to the platen at the location of th... | 07/30/1991 |
| 5002408 | Apparatus and method for printing character and ruled line An apparatus for printing characters and ruled lines which includes an input device for inputting character data and lateral and longitudinal line data, a printing device for printing characters and ruled lines every page on prescribed paper, and a contro... | 03/26/1991 |
| 5002409 | Printer with underlining function A printer having an underlining function includes an underline position memory. Each bit of the underline position memory is allotted to each printable position, and contents of bits corresponding to the underline positions are inverted.... | 03/26/1991 |
| 4989016 | Method and apparatus for time distributed use of ink-jets in a printer-plotter A computer program for controlling an ink-jet printer-plotter having a conventional multi-jet ink-jet cartridge operates so that when the printer-plotter is in plot mode, the jets are used in sequence, instead of conventionally always using the same jet. ... | 01/29/1991 |
| 4983052 | Adjusting vertical line length in frame printer A printer with a frame-printing function can automatically print out a frame with horizontal lines and vertical lines well-conformed to each other. The memory device of the printer stores externally input format data including data of line spacing, data o... | 01/08/1991 |
| 4963042 | Horizontal line position adjusting in frame processing device In a text processing device, provided is an improved tabulation function. The vertical positions of horizontal ruled lines dividing two rows are calculated based upon the intervals existing between these columns. If the row interval is expanded or changed... | 10/16/1990 |
| 4955733 | Printing apparatus with expanded pitch mode and underlining In order to print well balanced underlines under a character string printed at an expanded print pitch, the disclosed printing apparatus comprises an expanded pitch setting means for setting an expanded pitch mode for providing an expanded space correspon... | 09/11/1990 |
| 4906114 | Electronic typewriter An electronic typewriter has a function of making a rectangular frame, which is composed of a horizontal line and a vertical line. To make a frame in the course of the sequential input of characters, an operator moves the printing position to the upper le... | 03/06/1990 |
| 4880325 | Ink ribbon cassette including means for identifying the type of ink ribbon contained therein and containing an ink ribbon having end indication means An improved ink ribbon cassette for a serial printing apparatus comprises a body, first and second substantially coextensive spaced ink ribbon guide arms projecting from the body, each having a free end, and an ink ribbon mounted in the body for advanceme... | 11/14/1989 |
| 4856919 | Pen printer A pen printer for converting data into printed form on a print sheet placed on a platen. The pen printer comprises a plurality of ink pens and a pen carriage mounted for reciprocating movement above the platen. The pen carriage has a device for removably ... | 08/15/1989 |
| 4837709 | Recording apparatus with a function of determining recording direction of explanatory characters for graph A recording apparatus capable of recording a graphical representation such as a bar graph, broken-line graph and a pie charat, and a succession of explanatory characters accompanying the graphical representation, such that the explanatory characters are r... | 06/06/1989 |
| 4836712 | Electronic word processing with sequential character attribute compounding Electronic word processing is carried out with a keyboard including character keys and attribute keys. Attribute codes input by the attribute keys are stored in an attribute code memory in accordance with the sequence of attribute key operation. An attrib... | 06/06/1989 |
| 4818130 | Character erasable printing apparatus including selective erasing of variable length underline A character erasable printing apparatus is designed to erase a character or an underline in plural times of erasing action by moving the printing head, and to print a character by a single printing action. Therefore, when an underlined character is erased toge... | 04/04/1989 |
| 4808016 | Output apparatus with suppression of underscoring of blank characters An output apparatus includes input apparatus for inputting at least space information and character information; a memory for storing output data corresponding to the input information to be output; an additional information memory for storing additional ... | 02/28/1989 |
| 4804280 | Printer including apparatus for controlling underscore position relative to characters A printer having a first memory for storing character data representative of lines of characters to be printed on a recording medium, a second memory for storing line-space data representative of a line spacing between the lines of characters, and a contr... | 02/14/1989 |
| 4773774 | Printer with erasing ribbon control function Disclosed is a printer having a correction ribbon tape for correcting printed characters. A plurality of characters printed in the same print position can be corrected in one step of feed of the correction ribbon tape.... | 09/27/1988 |
| 4749289 | Printing device for attribute printing In a printer for printing an attributed character by printing a character part and an attribute part separately, the invented printer or typewriter is so constructed that only an attribute part, e.g., an underline part or a bold face part, is printed in c... | 06/07/1988 |
| 4737922 | Text processing apparatus Data output apparatus registers special format data added to specific character data together therewith in a registered word memory. When sentence data is read out from a sentence memory, the character data included in the sentence data and coinciding wit... | 04/12/1988 |
| 4734707 | Recorder with display indicating a symbol for text and graphical data A recording apparatus capable of recording characters and graphical representations, having a display which is adapted to display a special symbol together with the characters, so that the special symbol indicate the position of a graphical representation... | 03/29/1988 |
| 4733248 | Apparatus for recording graphical representations with checking of the recording area A recording apparatus capable of recording a graph according to graphic pattern data representative of a pattern of the graph, and graph data representative of values to be presented in the graph. The apparatus includes a control device for effecting and ... | 03/22/1988 |
| 4715006 | Image forming apparatus An image forming apparatus such as a dot printer has a built-in character generator built in the printer and for generating a standard type font pattern signal, a removable character generator removable from the printer and generating a specific type font... | 12/22/1987 |
| 4689764 | Method and apparatus for formatting a line of text containing a complex character prior to text justification A word or text processing system has a bidirectional printer with formatting capability. A line of text is printed in one direction, and the printer is backspaced to form complex characters by adding overstrikes, such as underlining or accent marks. The f... | 08/25/1987 |
| 4668963 | Pen recorder A pen recorder for writing characters and graphic patterns with recording pens on a sheet of recording paper by moving the recording pens in an X-axis direction and moving the sheet of recording paper in a Y-axis direction. When a desired key on a keyboar... | 05/26/1987 |
| 4644367 | Recording pen apparatus A recording apparatus for recording graphs or other graphical representations, with relative movements between a writing instrument on a carriage which is moved by a carriage drive unit, and a sheet of paper which is fed by a paper feed unit in opposite d... | 02/17/1987 |
| 4642779 | Writing-plotting apparatus with keyboard A writing-plotting apparatus with a keyboard capable of writing characters in a writing mode, and plotting graphs in a plotting mode, comprising a carriage carrying a writing instrument such a ball-point pen movable toward and away from a sheet of paper, ... | 02/10/1987 |
| 4629341 | Method for controlling printing position on a typewriter for underlining For underlining a text section a command is typed both before and after the text section in the typing sequence, which command causes the storing of position values in two registers. The underlining is then performed underneath the already entered charact... | 12/16/1986 |
| 4627748 | Writing-plotting apparatus with keyboard A recording apparatus for writing characters in a writing mode and plotting graphs in a plotting mode, with a writing instrument supported on a reciprocating carriage, based on input data through a keyboard which is operable in a first mode in which at le... | 12/09/1986 |
| 4627753 | Daisy-wheel type printing system with multiple functions A printer is provided with carriage having a daisy print wheel supporting type elements at the external circumferential edges of respective spokes that make up the wheel. The printer sequentially performs a printing operation by causing its carriage to mo... | 12/09/1986 |
