Patent ID: 8670160

Claim:
A printing device that performs printing on a printed object where a character string indicating personal information, including an address, a personal name or a telephone number is printed in order to conceal the character string, the printing device comprising: a reading unit that reads the character string on the printed object and obtains image data when a device main body is moved; a printing unit that performs printing when the device main body is moved; an operation mode setting unit that sets an operation mode to either one of a reading mode that activates the reading unit when the device main body is moved or a printing mode that activates the printing unit when the device main body is moved; a personal-information determining unit that determines a kind of the personal information that is an address, a personal name, or a telephone number based on the image data read by the reading unit when the operation mode is set to be the reading mode by the operation mode setting unit; a printing data setting unit that inputs and sets, as character string data to be printed, a plurality of character strings belonging to a same kind of the personal information determined by the personal-information determining unit; a concealing-pattern-data generating unit that generates concealing pattern data including the plurality of character strings input and set by the printing data setting unit as the character string data to be printed, the plurality of character strings being combined and arranged so as to overlap one another; and a printing control unit that causes the printing unit to perform printing based on the concealing pattern data generated by the concealing-pattern-data generating unit when the operation mode is set to be the printing mode by the operation mode setting unit in order to print a concealing pattern on the character string printed on the printed object; wherein the printing data setting unit includes: a zip code dictionary that stores address data corresponding to zip code data beforehand; and a data reading unit that reads, from the zip code dictionary, address data corresponding to each of a plurality of zip code data actually present and having a number of at least a part of digits of determined zip code data changed when the personal information determining unit determines that the kind of the personal information is an address.