Epson LX-86TM User Manual

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EPSON

LX-86

PRINTER

User's Manual

FCC COMPLIANCE STATEMENT

FOR AMERICAN USERS

This equipment generates used properly, that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions, may cause interference to radio and television reception. It has been type tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B computing device in accordance with the specifications in Subpart J of Part 15 of FCC rules, which are designed to provide reasonable protection against such interference in a residential installation. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television reception, which can be is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

-Reorient the receiving antenna

-Relocate the printer with respect to the receiver

-Plug the printer into a different outlet so that printer and receiver are on different branch circuits.

If necessary, the user should consult the dealer or an experienced radio/ television technician for additional suggestions. The user may find the following booklet prepared by the Federal Communications Commission helpful:

“How to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV Interference Problems. ” This booklet is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington DC

20402.

Stock No.

and

uses radio frequency energy and if not installed and

determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user

004-000-00345-4.

WARNING

The connection of a non-shielded printer interface cable to this printer will invalidate the FCC Certification of this device and may cause interference levels which exceed the limits established by the FCC for this equipment. If this equipment has more than one interface connector, do not leave cables connected to unused interfaces.

Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Applesoft is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Centronics is a registered trademark of Centronics Data Computer Corporation. Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation.

LX-80

is a trademark of Epson America, Inc. IX-86 is a trademark of Epson America, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

NOTICE:

The contents of this manual are subject to change without notice.

All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this

manual. However, should any errors be detected, EPSON would greatly

appreciate being informed of them.

The above notwithstanding, EPSON can assume no responsibility for any errors in this manual or their consequences.

Nagano, Japan

Contents

List

of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . , . . . . .

vii

List of Tables. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Introduction

LX-86 Features

About This Manual

Setting Up Your LX-86 Printer

Printer Parts.. Printer Location Paper Feed Knob Installation. Ribbon Installation Ribbon Replacement

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Paper Loading...............................

Control Panel

Lights

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Buttons..................................

Test Pattern. Connecting the LX-86 to Your Computer First Printing Exercise

SelecType . . . . . . . . . . . .

SelecType Operation . . .

Turning SelecType on .

Selecting typestyles. . .

SelecType exercise . . . .

SelecType Tips . . . . . . . .

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Viii

1 1 2

3 4 4

10 11

12 13

15 15 15 16

Elements of Dot Matrix Printing

The Print Head Bidirectional Printing. Changing Pitches NLQ Mode

Printer Control Codes

ASCII Codes ESCape Code Printer Codes

Embeddedcodes Inserted codes.

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Programming Languages

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21 21 22 22 24

27 27 28

29 30 30

iii

IX-86 Features

Demonstration Programs Pica Printing.

Changing Pitches Cancelling Codes

Resetting the Printer

Pitch Comparison. Near Letter Quality Mode

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33 33 34

35 35 36 36 37

Print Enhancements and Special Characters

Bold Modes

Emphasized mode Master program Double-strike

Double-width Mode.

Mode Combinations. Italic Mode..

Underline Mode

Master Select.

Superscript and Subscript Special Characters.

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Epson character graphics set International characters Graphics character set.

Page Formatting

Margins

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Justification with NIQ

Skip Over Perforation

Line Spacing

Paper-Out Sensor

User-Defined Characters

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Defining Your Own Characters Designing Process.

First definition program. Running the program.

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Second definition program Running the program.

Defining NLQ Characters.

NIQ grid

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First NLQ definition program Second NLQ definition program

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39 39 39

41 42 43 43 44 45 47 47 47

53 53 54 55 55 57

59 60

61 62 63 64 65 65

68 69

Introduction to Dot Graphics

Dot Patterns Print Head

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Graph&Mode ..............................

Pin Labels First Graphics Program.

Multiple-Line Exercise Density Varieties. Reassigning Code Column Reservation Numbers WIDTH Statements Design Your Own Graphics Graphics Programming Tips

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Semicolons and command placement String variables Graphics and low ASCII codes

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Appendixes

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71 72 73 73 74 76

81 84 84 86

LX-86 Characters Epson Character Graphics

Commands in Numerical Order

Control Key Chart

Command S Near Letter Quality

Character Width Print Enhancement Mode and Character Set Selection Special Printer Features

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ummary

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Line Spacing ................................

Forms Control. Page Format.. User-defied Characters Dot Graphics

Miscellaneous Codes.

The DIP Switches

D E

Using the Optional Tractor Unit

Printer Location Tractor Unit Installation Loading Continuous Paper.

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A-l

A-3

B-l

B-4

c-1

c-2

c-4 C-6 c-9

c-11 c-13 C-16

c-19 c-20 C-23

D-l

E-l

E-2

E-4

Troubleshooting and Advanced Features

Problem / Solution Summary

Setting print styles Tabbing Graphics

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Paper-out sensor

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Beeper Error Warnings

Data Dump Mode

Coding Solutions

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Solutions for Specific Systems

Applesoft BASIC solutions. Apple II solutions. IBM-PC solutions

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F-l

Fl F3 F-3 F-3 F5

F6 F6 F-6 F7

Printer Maintenance.

Always

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Now and Then Rarely

Technical Specifications

Printing

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Character size Characters per line

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Paper Printer.

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Dimensions and Weight. Environment. Interface

The Parallel Interface

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Data Transfer Sequence

Interface timing Signal relationships

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. . . . . .

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. . . . . .

. . . . . . H-2

. . . . . *

. . . . . .

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. * . . . .

......

G-l G-l G-l G-l

H-l H-l H-l

H-2

H-2 H-2 H-3 H-3

I-l I-3 I-3

I-3

List

Figures

l-l Printer parts

l-2

Paper feed knob installation

l-3

Ribbon cassette. l-4 Print head assembly l-5

Ribbon cassette installation l-6 Ribbon placement

l-7 IX-86 ready for paper loading

l-8 Control panel

l-9

Test patterns

l-10 Cable connection

2-l Turning SelecType on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3-l

A capital T

3-2

The three pitches of the LX-86

3-3

IX-86 dot matrix characters

6-l Emphasized and standard print. 6-2

Double-strike and standard print.

6-3

Double-width and standard characters

6-4

Italic and pica.

6-5

The underline mode

6-6 Special graphics characters

7-1

Standard line spacing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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7 8

9 10 12

13 16 21

23 24

42 44 45

8-l Grid for designing draft characters

8-2

Correct and incorrect designs

8-3

Design for character

8-4

Using the bottom eight rows

8-5

Grid for NLQ characters

8-6

Data numbers for one column

8-7

Arrow design and data numbers

9-l Pin labels

9-2

Calculating numbers for pin patterns

9-3

Designing in different densities

9-4

Arrow design

9-5

First line of arrow figure

9-6

Result of incorrect program

9-7

Pin patterns of incorrect program

D-l DIP switch location

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60 61 62 63 66 67 68

75 75 81 82 82 84 85

D-l

vii

Continuous paper with printer stand.

E-l

Continuous paper without stand

E-2

Tractor placement.

E-3 E-4

Paper separator and paper guide Tractor release levers

E-5

Pin feed holder adjustment

E-6

Open pin feed cover

E-7

Top of page position.

E-8

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E-l E-2 E-2 E-3 E-4

E-5 E-5 E-6

I-l

Parallel interface timing

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List of Tables

2-l

SelecType modes

Summary of LX-86 pitches.

5-1 6-1

International characters in NLQ mode.

6-2

International characters in draft mode. International characters in draft italic

6-3

Graphics modes

9-l

DIP switch functions

D-l

International DIP switch settings

D-2

Pins and signals

I-l

Signal interrelations

I-2

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I-3

49 49 50

D-2

I-l, I-2

I-4

. . .

Vlll

Introduction

The Epson IX-86

printer combines low price with the high quality

and advanced features formerly available only on more expensive

printers.

LX-86 Features

In addition to the high performance and reliability you’ve come

to expect from Epson printers, the LX-86 offers:

l Draft mode for quick printing of ordinary work l Near Letter Quality mode for top quality printing l Selection of typestyles with the control panel l Fast printing (120 characters per second in draft pica) l A variety of print styles, including Roman, italic, six widths,

and two kinds of bold printing

l User-definable characters so you can create and print your own

symbols or characters

l High-resolution graphics for charts, diagrams, and illustrations l Easy paper loading l Ribbon cassette for quick and clean ribbon changing l Epson Standard Character Graphics set, which includes char-

acter graphics that are used on IBM@ and compatible computers as well as international characters used by IBM software. These characters are shown below:

About This Manual

We’re not going to waste your time with unnecessary information, but we won’t neglect anything you need to know about the Ix-86 and its many features.

You can read as much or as little of this manual as you wish. If you have used printers before and have a specific program that you want to use with the LX-86, a quick reading of the first chapter may be all you need. If, on the other hand, you are new to computers and printers, you will find this manual easy to follow and the LX-86 easy to use. No matter what your background, if you want to learn about and experiment with all the advanced features of the LX-86, the information you need is here.

For a preview of what your LX-86 can do, look at the following samples of a few of its typestyles.

NEAR LETTER QUALITY

NLQ standard

NLQ

*DRAFT MODE

Pica

Elite

Condensed

Italic

Underlined Emphasized double-width

emphasized

ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHI.JKLMnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz

Chapter

Setting Up Your LX-86 Printer

Setting up your LX-86 printer is a simple matter of attaching two parts, putting in the ribbon and paper, and connecting the printer to your computer.

This chapter will have you printing a test pattern within fifteen to

twenty minutes and doing more complicated work not long after.

Printer Parts

First, see that you have all the parts you need. In addition to this

manual, the printer box should contain the items shown in Figure 1-l.

* In the United States, the printer is delivered with the power

cord attached.

Figure l-l. Printer parts

In addition to the items in the box, you need a cable and possibly an interface board. The cable connects the printer to your computer, and the interface board is necessary only for those computers that can’t use the LX-86’s Centronics® paralle1 interface. Your computer manual or your dealer will tell you which cable you need and whether or not you need a special interface.

Printer Location

Now that you have unpacked your printer, you should choose a suitable location for it. The main requirement, of course, is that the printer be close enough to your computer for the cable to reach. Also remember the following:

l Use a grounded outlet, and do not use an adapter plug.

l Avoid using electrical outlets that are controlled by wall switches.

Accidentally turning off a switch can wipe out valuable information in your computer’s memory and disrupt your printing.

l Avoid using an outlet on the same circuit breaker with any large

electrical machines or appliances. These can cause disruptive power fluctuations.

l Keep your printer and computer away from base units for cordless

telephones.

l Protect the printer from direct sunlight, excessive heat, moisture,

and dust. Make sure that it is not close to a heater or other heat source.

Paper Feed Knob Installation

Now that you have chosen where to set up your LX-86, the first and simplest piece to install is the paper feed knob, which you use to manually advance the paper-lust as you do on a typewriter. To install the knob, merely push it onto the shaft found in the hole on the right side of the printer. (See Figure l-2.) The shaft has one flat side that must be matched with the flat side of the hole in the knob.

Figure 1-2. Paper feed knob installation

Ribbon Installation

The LX-86 printer uses a continuous-loop, inked fabric ribbon, which is enclosed in a cassette that makes ribbon installation and replacement a clean and easy job. The parts of this cassette are labelled in Figure

l-3.

Ribbon

Knob

Figure

l-3.

Ribbon cassette

To install the ribbon, first open the lid at the front of the LX-86 so that you can see the print head assembly shown in Figure the assembly by hand to the center of the printer so that the other

parts of the printer will not get in your way. Also be sure that the paper bail is against the black roller so it too will not be in your way.

Note: Moving the print head by hand when the printer is turned on

can harm the printer. Always be sure that the printer is turned off before you move the print head.

l-4.

Move

Figure 1-4. Print bead assembly

Then hold the ribbon cassette so that the small knob is on top and the exposed section of ribbon is away from you. Insert the cassette in its holder by first sliding the pins at the back of the ribbon cassette under the small hooks on the holder. (See Figure l-5.) Then lower the front of the cassette so that the exposed section of ribbon can fit between the print head nose and the silver ribbon guide. Push down

until the cassette fits firmly in place.

Figure 1-5. Ribbon cassette installation

Now turn the knob on the cassette in the direction of the arrow to tighten the ribbon. As you turn the knob, see that the ribbon slips down into its proper place between the print head nose and the silver ribbon guide (Figure l-6). If it doesn’t, guide it with a pen or a pencil.

Figure l-6. Ribbon placement

Ribbon Replacement

When your printing begins to become light and you need to re-

place the ribbon, lift the front of the cassette to remove it and then

follow the above instructions with a new cassette. If you have been using your printer just before you change cassettes, be aware that the print head becomes hot during use. Be careful not to touch it. Also remember never to move the print head by hand when the printer is turned on.

Paper Loading

Now put a sheet of paper in your LX-86 so you can test it. Figure

l-7 shows the names of the parts

that you need to know.

Friction lever

Figure l-7. LX-86 ready for paper loading

See that the printer is turned off, open the front lid, and push the friction lever back and the paper bail forward. Then move the print head by hand to the center of the printer and feed the paper into the paper slot in the top of the printer.

When the paper will not go any farther, turn the paper feed knob to advance it as you would with a typewriter. Turn the knob until the top of the paper is at least 3/4-inch above the ribbon guide. Then push the paper bail against the paper. If the paper becomes crooked, pull the friction-release lever forward, straighten the paper, and push the

friction lever back.

If you have the optional tractor unit for continuous pin-feed paper, see Appendix E for instructions on its use.

Control Panel

Now that your paper is loaded, it is time to plug in the printer

and see what the buttons on the control panel do. First, see that the power switch on the right side of the printer is off. Then plug in the power cord. Now turn on the power switch and look at the control panel.

Figure l-8. Control panel

There are three buttons and four indicator lights on the control panel.

Lights

The POWER light glows green when the power is on.

The READY light glows green when the printer is ready to accept data.

This light flickers somewhat during printing.

• The PAPER OUT light glows red to indicate that the printer is out of paper or the paper is loaded incorrectly.

• The ON LINE light glows green when the printer can receive data.

Buttons

The buttons have several functions, including selecting draft or NLQ

(Near Letter Quality) printing. Draft is good for quick printing of ordinary work, and NLQ has more fully-formed characters for final copies or special purposes.

This is high-quality NLQ printing.

This is fast

ON LINE/OFF LINE. This button switches the printer between

draft

printing.

on-line and off-line status. When the printer is on line, the ON LINE light glows and the printer is ready to accept data.

l FORM FEED/NLQ. When the printer is on line, pressing this

button turns on NLQ. When the printer is off line, this button advances the paper to the top of the next page.

l LINE FEED/DRAFT. When the printer is on line, this button

turns on draft printing. When the printer is off line, this button advances the paper one line at a time.

Test Pattern

Now you’ll see your Lx-86 print something even though it’s not connected to a computer yet. Make sure that your printer has paper in it and that the power switch is off. Now, hold down the LINE FEED button on the control panel while you turn the printer on with the power switch. The Lx-86 will begin printing all the letters, numbers and other characters that are stored in its ROM (Read Only Memory) for the draft mode. When the printing starts, you can release the LINE FEED button; the printing will continue until you turn the printer off or until the print head gets near the end of the page. To see the same test in the NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode, turn the printer on while holding down the FORM FEED button. Partial results of both tests are shown in Figure 1-9.

23456789:;<=> 3456789:;<=>

456789:;<=>

56789:;<=> 6789:'<=> ?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ

789 : ;<=>

89:;<=> 9 : ;<=>

: ; <=>

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[/]ˆ_`ab

;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQTRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_’abc

<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQTRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ._'

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`a

<NLQ>

123456789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMOPQPSTUVWXY 23456789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMHOPQRSTUVWXYZ 3456789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[ 456789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\ 56789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMHOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\] 6789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ 789: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQESTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ89: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQESTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_' 9: ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMHOPQRSTUVWXYK[\]ˆ_'a : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQESTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_' ab

; <=>?BABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ

<=> ?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQESTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ ‘abed

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXY

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\

?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]

abcd

’ abc

Figure l-9. Test patterns

Connecting the LX-86 to Your Computer

Now that the test pattern has shown that your printer is working

well, it’s time to hook it up to your computer. It is best to have both the printer and the computer turned off when you do this.

Remember that each computer system has its own way of com-

municating with a printer. If your computer expects to communicate through a Centronics parallel interface, all you need is a cable. If your computer requires any other kind of interface, you will also need an

interface board.

If you don’t know what a Centronics parallel interface is, your computer manual or your dealer will tell you what you need. Then, once you have plugged your printer cable into your printer and computer, you will probably never think about interfaces again. (If you do want the technical specifications, however, you can find them in Appendix I.)

The first three steps in connecting your printer and computer are shown in Figure l-10. Plug one end of your printer cable into the cable connector of your LX-86 printer. The plug is shaped so that there is only one way it will fit the connector. Now secure the plug to the printer with the wire clips on each side of the connector. These clips insure that your cable will not be loosened or unplugged accidentally. If your cable has a grounding wire, fasten it to the grounding screw below the connector.

Figure I-10. Cable connection

Grounding

screw

Grounding

wire

Next connect the other end of the printer cable to your computer.

On most computers you can easily find the correct connector for the

printer cable, but if you are not sure, consult your computer manual

or your dealer.

First Printing Exercise

Now it is time to see something more interesting than the test pattern from your LX-86 printer. Your next step depends upon what kind of printing you plan to do. If you have a word processing or other commercial software program, just load the program in your computer, follow its printing instructions, and watch your Lx-86 print. If you plan to use your LX-86 for printing program listings, load a program and use your computer system’s listing command (LLIST for Microsoft

Note: If all the lines of your first printing exercise are printed on top

of each other, don’t worry. There is nothing wrong with your printer. All you have to do is change the setting of a small switch in the back of your printer. See the section on automatic line feeds in Appendix D.

BASIC, for example).

Chapter 2

SelecType

The LX-86’s SelecType feature can produce four special

typestyles:

This is emphasized printing.

This is

This is condensed printing.

This is in the elite mode.

SelecType Operation

Using SelecType is easy. You turn on SelecType and select a type-

style, then turn off SelecType and print.

Note: Each button has two names. For convenience, this chapter

uses the top names of the buttons.

Turning SelecType on

1. Make sure that the printer is on and that the POWER, READY, and ON LINE lights are all on.

in the double-strike mode.

Press both the OFF LINE and FORM FEED buttons at the same

time, as illustrated in Figure 2-l. Hold them down for at least a second, then release them.

Note: If the printer beeps twice before you release the buttons,

you have pressed the FORM FEED button before the OFF LINE button instead of at the same time and the LX-86 is in the NLQ mode. Press the OFF LINE button to put the printer back on line and press the DRAFT button if you do

not want NLQ. Then press both the OFF LINE and FORM FEED buttons to turn on SelecType.

Figure 2-1. Turning SelecType on

When you release the OFF LINE and FORM FEED buttons,

the LX-86 signals in three ways that SelecType is on.

• The printer beeps.

The READY light turns off.

• The ON LINE light begins flashing.

Selecting typestyles

In SelecType, each button has a function:

• OFF LINE selects typestyles. *FORM FEED sets the styles.

•LINE FEED turns SelecType off.

After turning on SelecType, follow these three steps to select

a typestyle:

1. Find the typestyle you want in Table 2-1.

Table 2-l. SelecType modes

Mode

1 2 3 4

Emphasized

Double&trike condensed Elite

Typestyle or Function

ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz

2. Press the OFF LINE button the number of times indicated in the mode column. Be sure that the printer beeps each time you

press the OFF LINE button.

3. Press the FORM FEED button to set the typestyle.

4. Press the LINE FEED button to turn SelecType off. The control panel returns to its normal functions, but the printer is off-line.

5. Press the OFF LINE button, and you are ready to print.

SelecType exercise

You don’t need to know anything about programming for this exercise because it is merely for practice. If you would rather not use BASIC, use your word processing or business program to create a short file or document of the type you will usually print.

If you do want to use BASIC for this exercise, simply turn on your computer and printer and load BASIC. Then type the short program listed below. Only the words inside the quotation marks are printed. You can put anything you want there. (If your version of BASIC does not use LPRINT, consult your BASIC manual.)

10 LPRINT “This is an example” 20 LPRINT ” of LX printing. ”

Now, run the program by typing RUN and pressing RETURN, or print your file or document by following the printing instructions of your software. The LX-86 will print your example in standard singlestrike printing, as shown below:

This is an example

of LX printing.

Now that you have created a sample, follow these steps to print it

in condensed mode:

See that both the ON LINE and READY lights are on.

2. Press the OFF LINE and FORM FEED buttons at the same time, then release them. You hear a beep to signal that SelecType is on.

3. As shown in Table 2-1, the code for condensed is three. Therefore, press the OFF LINE button three times. (Remember to make sure you hear a beep each time you press the OFF LINE button when you are in SelecType mode.)

4. Now that you have selected the condensed mode, push the FORM FEED button once to set it.

5. Push the LINE FEED button once to return the panel to its standard operation.

6. Press the OFF LINE button so the IX-86 is ready to print. Now you have set the LX-86 to print in condensed mode. Print

your sample once more. It should appear in condensed mode just as you see below:

This is an example of LX printing.

Turn off your printer to cancel the condensed setting, and-

if you wish-try this exercise with other modes. Note: Some applications programs are designed to control all

typestyle functions. These programs cancel all previous typestyle settings by sending an initialization signal before printing. Because this signal cancels SelecType settings, you will have to use the program’s print options function instead of SelecType to select your typestyles. Therefore, if SelecType does not work with a particular applications program, consult its manual on how to select typestyles.

SelecType Tips

Once you have learned the simple technique for controlling print styles with SelecType, you can use it whenever you wish. You should be aware of a few restrictions, however.

SelecType is designed to control the printing of an entire file or

document, not an individual line or word.

l If you are using the NLQ mode, remember that the following

SelecType modes are not available in NLQ: condensed, double-

strike, and elite.

If there are print codes in the document or file you are printing,

those codes will override your SelecType settings. This seldom

happens, since you usually won’t use SelecType with files that have

such codes, but if your IX-86 follows the SelecType instructions for

only part of a document, print codes in the document may

conflict with the SelecType modes.

After you turn on a mode with SelecType, it stays in effect until the

printer is turned off. If, for example, you use SelecType to print a

document in emphasized, anything you print after that will be

emphasized unless you first turn the printer off and back on.

Chapter 3

Elements of Dot Matrix Printing

This chapter is for those of you who want to know something about how your printer works. It’s a simple, non-technical explanation of the basics of dot matrix printing that will help you understand some of the later chapters.

The Print Head

The IX-86 uses a print head with nine pins or wires mounted vertically. Each time a pin is fired, it strikes the inked ribbon and presses it against the paper to produce a dot. This dot is about 1/72nd of an inch in diameter. The size varies slightly depending upon the age of the ribbon and the type of paper used. As the head moves horizontally across the page, these pins are fired time after time in different patterns to produce letters, numbers, symbols, or graphics.

For example, to print a pica capital T, the head fires the top pin, moves 1/60th of an inch, fires the top pin again, moves 1/60th of an inch, fires the top seven pins, moves 1/60th of an inch, fires the top pin, moves another 1/60th of an inch, and fires the top pin once more to finish the letter.

Figure 3-l. A capital T

Bidirectional Printing

In nearly all of our discussions in this manual, we describe the

action of the LX-86 print head as moving from left to right, as a

typewriter does. During its normal operation while printing in the

draft mode, however, the LX-86 prints bidirectionally. That is, the

print head goes from left to right only on every other line. On the

other lines it reverses everything and prints right to left.

By reversing both the dot patterns and the printing direction, the LX-86 produces a line that is correct and looks no different from a line printed from left to right. It does this to save time. Otherwise, the time the print head takes to go from the right margin back to the left would be wasted.

The intelligence of the printer takes care of all the calculations necessary for this bidirectional printing, so you don’t have to be concerned about it. You simply do your part of the work as if the printer will be printing from left to right on each line and let the LX-86 do all the necessary calculations so that you can enjoy the increased speed.

Changing Pitches

In addition to pica, in which there are 10 characters per inch,

the LX-86 can also print in other widths, or pitches. It does so by reducing the distance between pin firings. In the elite mode it prints 12 characters per inch and in the compressed mode it prints

17 characters per inch. The pattern of the dots is not changed, but

the horizontal space between them is reduced.

In Figure 3-2 are enlargements of four sample letters in each of the three pitches. These letters are chosen to show how the LX86 prints letters that are uppercase and lowercase, wide and narrow, and with

and without descenders (the bottom part of the y).

In Figure 3-3 there is a grid of lines behind the pica characters so that you can more easily see how they are designed. As you look at these characters you can see three rules that govern their design: the column on the right side is always left blank so that there will be

spaces between the characters on a line; no character uses both the top

and the bottom row; and a dot can be placed on a vertical line only when the columns next to that line are not used.

Figure 3-3. LX-86 dot matrix characters

NLQ Mode

The preceding examples are in the LX-86’s draft mode, but the

LX-86 also has the high-quality NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode

that you have seen in previous chapters.

The NLQ letters are more fully formed than the draft letters because they are made up of many more dots. Two differences between draft and NLQ printing enable the IX-86 to print such a large number of dots for each character. In the NLQ mode, the head moves more slowly, so that dots can overlap horizontally, and each character is printed with two passes of the print head.

To further ensure the quality of NLQ characters, both passes of the print head are in the same direction so the alignment of the dots is exact.

Because the NLQ mode uses two passes for each line and prints

only in one direction, your printing does take longer in this mode.

With the two modes, draft and NLQ, the IX-86 lets you choose high speed or high quality each time you print. You can print your ordinary work or preliminary drafts quickly in the draft mode and use the NLQ mode for final copies or special purposes.

The panel buttons make it especially easy to change from draft to NLQ, but you can also select and cancel the NLQ mode with a software command which you can find in Chapter 5.

Chapter 4

Printer Control Codes

The LX-86 printer is easy to use, especially with commercial software that has print control features. This chapter explains some of the basics of printer control and communications to help you understand how a computer communicates with your printer. This information should also help you understand the terms used in your software or computer manual.

If you are an advanced user or a programmer, you may want to turn to Appendix C, which has a full summary of all the Ix-86 commands.

ASCII Codes

When you write a document with a word processing program, you press keys with letters on them. When you send the document to a printer, it prints the letters on paper. The computer and the printer, however, do not use or understand letters of the alphabet. They function by manipulating numbers. Therefore, when you press the A key, for example, the computer sends a number to its memory. When the computer tells the printer to print that letter, it sends the number to the printer, which must then convert the number to a pattern of pins that will fire to print the dots that make up that letter.

The numbers that computers and printers use are in binary form, which means that they use only the digits 0 and 1. In this manual, however, we use decimal numbers in our explanations because most users are more familiar with these numbers and because most programming languages and applications programs can use decimal numbers. The computer system or the program takes care of changing the decimal numbers to binary form for you.

Computer and printer interaction would be terribly confusing if different kinds of computers and printers used different numbers for the same letter of the alphabet. Therefore, most manufacturers of computers, printers, and software use the American Standard Code for Information Interchange, usually referred to as ASCII (pronounced ASK-Key). The ASCII standard covers the decimal numbers from 0 through 127 and includes codes for printable characters (letters, punctuation, numerals, and mathematical symbols) and a few control codes, such as the codes for sounding the beeper and performing a carriage return.

Although other codes are not standardized in the computer industry, the ASCII system means that at least the alphabet is standardized. A programmer or engineer knows, for example, that 72 is the decimal code for a capital H and 115 is the code for a lowercase s no matter what system he or she is using.

ESCape Code

Although the original ASCII standard was designed to use the decimal numbers 0 through 127, computer and printer manufacturers soon extended this range (to 0 through 255) in order to make room for more features. On the IX-86, for example, the

codes from 160 through 254 are used for italic or character

graphics characters. Because even this extended range is not enough for all the features used on modern printers, the range is

further extended with a special code called the Escape code. This code is often printed with the first three letters capitalized

(ESCape) or abbreviated as ESC or <ESC> .

With the ESCape code, for which decimal 27 is used, printers and computers are not restricted to only 256 instructions. The ESCape code is a signal that the next code will be a printer control code instead of text to print. For example, if the printer receives the number 69, it prints a capital E because 69 is the ASCII code for that letter. If, however, the printer receives a 27 just before the 69, it turns on emphasized mode, because ESCape “E” is the code for emphasized.

You can see how important the ESCape code is by looking at

Appendixes B and C. There you will see that nearly every code the

LX-86

uses is an ESCape code.

Printer Codes

To take advantage of the many print features of the IX-86, you can use a software program that sends the correct codes or you can use another method to send codes. It’s not possible to be as precise and specific as we would like in the rest of this chapter because the

IX-86 works with so many different applications programs and computer systems. If we gave precise instructions on how to use your LX-86 with every one of them, this manual would fill at least four volumes and would have to be updated every month.

We will, therefore, give you the general principles of how software communicates with your printer, plus several ways the codes of the LX-86 are used by applications programs such as word processing and business programs. With this information and possibly some help from your dealer or the manual for your applications program, you can take advantage of all the features of the LX-86 that you want to use. Incidentally, there is no standard terminology for software codes; thus, the terms in your software manual may be different from

the ones we use here.

In general there are three ways you send printer codes with com-

mercial software:

l Using SelecType, the feature described in Chapter 2. l Instructing the program during an installation or setup procedure

so that you can then use codes that are typed in along with your

text or numbers; we call these embedded codes.

l Inserting LX-86 printer codes in your text along with a special

code that tells the printer that the inserted codes are not text or

data.

There are three common formats for sending printer codes. Your

applications software or its manual should tell you which one to use.

l Decimal numbers-for example, 27 is the decimal number for the

ESCape code, and 13 is the decimal number for a carriage return.

l Hexadecimal numbers, in which the ESCape code is 1B and a

carriage return is OD. You don’t have to understand hexadecimal

numbers to use them. If your software calls for hex numbers, just

consult Appendix B or the Quick Reference Card for the

appropriate number.

l The ESCape and control keys on your computer’s keyboard. With

this system you send the ESCape code by pressing the ESCape key and a carriage return by pressing the control key and the M at the same time. (See Appendix B or the Quick Reference Card for the control key codes.)

Embedded codes

A program that uses embedded codes usually has its own set of codes that you type into your document or file. When the program receives one of these codes, it sends the proper code to the LX-86. For example, one popular word processing program has you turn italic mode on and off by pressing the control key and P

and then pressing the Q. So if you want to italicize a word, you type Control-PQ before it and after it. When the program reaches the first Control-PQ, it sends the code to turn italic mode on, and when it reaches the second, it sends the code to cancel italic. Please note that these are not the same as the control key codes mentioned above.

Once you tell such a program that you are using an Epson printer, it will know which codes to send. (Often you don’t even need to specify which Epson printer you are using.) You usually tell the

program what printer you are using through an installation or set-up

procedure. The instructions should be in your software manual. In addition, your software or computer dealer may be able to help you.

Many programs that use embedded codes also have a few commands that the user can define. If you are new to using printers, don’t

worry about these yet. Just use the standard features. Later, when you are more familiar with your software and with your LX-86, you

may want to investigate the user-defined commands and customize

your program.

Inserted codes

To take advantage of some of the advanced features of the IX-86,

some programs require inserted codes. Those codes allow you to send commands to the printer in the middle of text or data. In most of

these programs one code signals that the next numbers are printer

instructions, not text or data. In one such program, for example, you type Control-V (pressing V while holding down the control key) to signal the beginning of printer instructions. Then you enter your print codes and type Control-V again to signal the end of the printer instructions.

If your word processing program allows inserted codes, it will

probably do standard printing without such codes. It is only for

special features that you will need to use inserted codes. For example, if you want to have headings in wide bold printing (called double-width emphasized), you would probably have to use inserted codes. For the program we mentioned above you

would type Control-V, then the code for double-width empha-

sized, Control-V again, and then the text of the heading. The codes for double-width emphasized are in Chapter 6 and Appendix C.

Again, if this sounds terribly complicated, don’t worry. Use your

LX-86 with the standard features of your word processing program

until you become more familiar with both of them. Then you can

decide whether or not you need or want to learn to use inserted codes.

See your software documentation for further information.

Programming Languages

If neither of the methods described above seems appropriate for your application, you can write a program in BASIC or any other programming language to send control codes to your printer. In the chapter on page formatting you will find examples of such programs.

Just remember that with this method your printer control code stays

in effect for the whole document you print. This method is good for setting margins, for example, but does not work for italicizing a word.

Now you have some background on how printers work and how software can communicate with them. Turn to the next chapters to learn about the specific features of your LX-86 printer.

Chapter 5

IX-86 Features

Beginning with this chapter we describe many of the printing features of the LX-86. Although we include programs that demonstrate these features, you don’t have to be a programmer to learn about the features from these chapters. How much of the rest of this manual you use depends upon your expertise, your interest, and the software you plan to use.

(Demonstration Programs

Along with our discussion and examples of the LX-86 features, we include demonstrations in the BASIC programming language so that you can see these features in action. Although we know that you will probably not do much of your printing using BASIC, we chose it for our demonstrations because most computer systems include some form of BASIC, so our examples are ones that almost every one of you can try.

You don’t need to know anything about BASIC to type in and run these programs. Just check your BASIC manual to see how to load BASIC in your computer and how to run a program. As you run the programs (or even as you read the explanations and look at the printed examples), you learn how the LX-86 responds to the messages your computer sends it by printing letters, numbers, symbols, and graphics in various print modes.

Even if you never use BASIC again, you will know the capabilities of your printer, capabilities that can often solve your printing problems. For example, if you need a special symbol you will know that you can turn to the chapter on user-defined characters and create such a character.

If you don’t want to do the exercises in Many users are quite happy with their printers without ever learning any more about them than how to turn them on and off and how to load paper. Therefore, you shouldn’t be intimidated by the information in this manual. In most cases the software that you use for word processing, business, or graphics does the calculating and communicating with the printer for you.

In fact, because of Epson’s long-standing popularity, many programs are designed to use Epson printers quite easily. Often all you need to do is specify in an installation program that you are using an Epson printer. Then the program sends the correct codes for the various printing functions. The installation process, if there is one, is explained in the manual for your software program.

BASIC,

you don’t have to.

We have designed these chapters so that you can concentrate on using the features of the LX-86 instead of on programming, but a few instructions are necessary. Because the examples in this manual are in Microsoft BASIC (MBASIC), one of the most widely used types of BASIC in personal computers, most users can enter

and run the programs exactly as they appear in these pages.

If your computer system uses any other kind of BASIC, you may have to make a few changes. Probably the only item you will need to change is the instruction LPRINT, which is the MBASIC command to send something to the printer. Some forms of BASIC use PR#l at the beginning of a program to route information to the printer and

PR#O at the end to restore the flow of information to the screen. If

you have such a system, just put PR#l at the beginning of your program and then use PRINT instead of LPRINT in the programs. If you have any other system, consult its manual to see if any modifications to our programs are necessary.

In Chapter 3 you saw the enlargements of the three LX-86 pitches. Now you’ll learn how to produce them.

Pica Printing

The first exercise is a simple three-line program to print a sample line of characters in pica, the standard pitch. Just type in this program exactly as you see it:

FOR X=65 TO 105

50 LPRINT CHR$(X);

60 NEXT X: LPRINT

Now run the program. You should get the results you see below,

pica characters per inch.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQTRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`abcdefghi

Changing Pitches

Now you can try other pitches. As we explained in Chapter 3, the

IX-86 uses the same pattern of dots for pica, elite, and condensed

characters, but it changes the horizontal spaces between the dots to produce the three different widths.

In elite mode there are 12 characters per inch, and in condensed

there are

“M” command and prints in condensed when it receives the

ASCII 15 command. Print a sample line of elite characters by adding this line to your previous program:

20 LPRINT CHR$ (27) “M” ; This line uses the command for elite, ESCape “M”, to turn on that

mode. Your printout should look like the one below.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\lˆ_`abcdefghi

17.

The LX-86 prints in elite when it receives the ESCape

The next addition to the program cancels elite with ESCape “P” and

turns on condensed with ASCII

15:

30 LPRINT CHR$ (27) “P” CHR$ (15) ;

Now run the program to see the line printed in condensed mode.

ABCDEFHIGKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`abcdefghi

Cancelling Codes

As you saw in the third version of the print pitch program, you must cancel a code when you do not want it any more. With very

few exceptions, the LX-86 modes stay on until they are cancelled.

It is important to remember this because an

on even if you change from BASIC to another type of software. For

example, if you print a memo with a word processing program after you run the program above, the printer will still be in

condensed mode; therefore, the memo will be in condensed print. To cancel, use ASCII

18.

LX-86

mode can stay

To avoid having one program interfere with the printing modes of

another, you can cancel a mode one of two ways:

l With a specific cancelling code, such as the ESCape “P” that we

used above to cancel elite. Each mode has a cancelling code, which you can find in the discussion of the code and in Appendix B. Pica is an exception to this rule. To cancel pica, turn on elite.

l By resetting the printer, a method explained in the next section.

Resetting the Printer

Resetting your LX-86 cancels all modes that are turned on. You

can reset the printer with one of two methods:

l Sending the reset code (ESCape “@”) l Turning the printer off and back on.

Either one of these methods returns the printer to what are

called its defaults, which are the standard settings that are in effect

every time you turn the printer on. The two effects of resetting the

printer that you should be concerned with are: it returns the

printing to single-strike pica, thus cancelling any other pitches or

enhancements you may have turned on with control codes or

SelecType, and the current position of the print head becomes the

top of page setting.

Some of our demonstration programs end with a reset code so that the commands from one program will not interfere with the commands in the next one. After you run a program with a reset code in it, remember to change the top of page setting before you begin printing full pages.

Pitch Comparison

Now that you have used three short programs to produce samples of the main pitches, you can choose the pitch that you prefer or the one that best fits a particular printing job. Most people use either pica or elite for printing text and condensed for spreadsheets or other applications in which it is important to get the maximum number of characters on a line.

In fact, if you need even more than the that condensed gives you, you can combine elite and condensed for a mode we call condensed elite. It is not really another pitch, because the size of the characters is the same as in the condensed mode; only the space between the characters is reduced. You can

see this mode, which allows 160 characters to fit on a line, if you

replace line 30 in your last program with this line:

132

characters per line

30 LPRINT CHR$(l5);

With this addition, the program turns on condensed but doesn’t

turn off elite, giving you the printout below:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`abcdefghi

If your printout is different, you may need a

such as the one below:

WIDTH

statement

5 WIDTH LPRINT 255

The format for your system will probably be different. Consult

your

BASIC

manual.

Near Letter Quality Mode

The examples so far in this chapter are in the draft mode, and

you have already learned how to turn on the NLQ mode with a

panel button, but you can also see the NLQ mode with the following program:

10 LPRINT CHR$ (27) “x” CHR$ (1) ; 20 FOR X=65 TO 105 30 LPRINT CHR$ (X); 40 NEXT X: LPRINT

Note that you use a lowercase x, not a capital X, in line 10.

Because of the high resolution of the NLQ mode, it prints only in

pica, not in elite or condensed.

All the modes demonstrated in this chapter are compared in Table

5-l.

Table 5-1, Summary of LX-86 pitches

Print sample

1 inch

Near Letter Quality

Pica print

Elite print Condensed print

Condensed elite print

CPI

10.00

12.00

17.16

20.00

Codes

ESC "x" 1 ESC "P" ESC "M"

ESC "M" ESC "P"

ESC "P" 15

ESC "M" 15 ESC "P" 18

oft

ESC "x" 0

Remember that you don’t have to use BASIC to change modes;

you can use any method that sends the printer the proper codes.

Chapter 6

Print Enhancements and Special Characters

Now that you have seen how you can change the pitch of your IX-86 printing, we can show you many more ways to vary and enhance your printing. So that you won’t have to type in dozens of

programs to try all the features, we give you just one master program

that can demonstrate any feature.

Bold Modes

Besides the pitches (pica, elite, and condensed) that we covered

in Chapter 5, the LX-86 offers many other typestyles, including

two for bold printing-emphasized and double-strike.

Emphasized mode

In the emphasized mode the IX-86 prints each dot twice, with the second dot slightly to the right of the first. In order to do this, the print head must slow down so that it has time to fire, retract, and fire the pins quickly enough to produce the overlapping dots. As you can

see in Figure

formed characters that are darker than single-strike ones.

6-1,

this method produces better-looking, more fully-

Standard Print

Figure 6-l. Emphasized and standard print

Emphasized Print

Emphasized works only in draft pica and NLQ modes. In elite

and condensed the dots are already so close together that even

with the reduced print speed, the LX-86 cannot fire, retract, and

again fire the pins quickly enough to print overlapping dots.

You do sacrifice some print speed and ribbon

because the print head slows down and prints twice as many dots, but

the increase in print quality is well worth it. Indeed, you may want to

use emphasized instead of the NLQ mode for some purposes because emphasized printing is faster. than NLQ printing.

Now that you have seen our example of emphasized printing, we

will give you

the ESCape codes, including the ESCape code to turn on emphasized: ESCape “E”.

Master program

First, type in the program below. If you have some programming

experience, you can see that the program asks you what codes you want to test and then prints a sample of what the codes do. Be

sure to ty

Applesoft

20 PRINT “Which ESCape code do you ” 30 INPUT “want to test” ; A$

40 PRINT .“What kind of printing ” 50 INPUT “does it produce” ; B$ 60 LPRINT CHR$(27)A$ 70 LPRINT “This sample uses ESCape “;A$ 80 LPRINT “to produce “;B$; ” printing. ” 90 LPRINT CHR$(27)“@”

a master program that allows you to test almost any of

e in the blank spaces in lines 70 and 80. If you are using

™,

BASIC, see Appendix F.

life with emphasized,

Now run the program. When the first question appears on the

screen, type a capital E and then press the RETURN key. Type

“emphasized” and press the RETURN key in answer to the second

question. The program is easy to use. Just remember to press the RETURN key after the answer to each question and to use a capital letter in the answer to the first question unless we tell you to use a lowercase letter for a specific code.

You should get the following printout when you run this program

and type “E” and “emphasized” in answer to the questions.

This sample Uses ESCape E

to produce emphasized printing.

The code to turn off emphasized is ESCape “F”.

Double-strike

The other bold mode on the LX-86 is double-strike. For this mode

the printer prints each line, then moves the paper up slightly and

prints the line again. Each dot is printed twice, with the second one

slightly below the first as you can see in Figure 6-2.

Standard Print

Double-strike print

Figure 6-2. Double-strike and standard print

Unlike emphasized, double-strike combines with any draft pitch

(but not with NLQ) because it does not overlap dots horizontally. Since each line in this mode is printed twice, the speed of your printing is slowed. The code for double-strike is ESCape “G”. Try it

in the the master program if you wish. The code to turn off doublestrike is ESCape “H”.

Double-width Mode

Perhaps the most dramatic mode on the LX-86 is double-width. It produces extra-wide characters that are good for titles and headings. For this mode, the dot pattern of each character is expanded and a duplicate set of dots is printed one dot to the right. You can see the difference between pica and double-width pica in Figure 6-3.

Standard Print

Figure G-3. Double width and standard characters

You can try double-width yourself by using the code the master program. Notice that double-width uses an ESCape code format that is slightly different from the previous ones. You must use the numeral one as well as a capital W to turn on doublewidth. For this mode the letter and the numeral one together turn on the mode and the letter and the numeral zero together turn it off. Thus ESCape “Wl” turns on double-width and ESCape

"Wo”

another form of double-width. In this alternate form, called one-

line double-width, the printing is the same as that in Figure 6-3, but it is turned on by ASCII 14 and is turned off by a line feed, ASCII

turns it off.

Those of you who are programmers may be interested in

20,

or ESCape

Double-width

“WO”.

“W1”

Mode Combinations

You can combine nearly all of the print modes on the LX-86. Indeed, your Ix-86 printer can print such complicated combinations as double-strike emphasized double-width underlined italic subscript, although we’re not sure that you would ever want to use such a combination. The point is, however, that the LX-86 has the ability to produce almost any combination you can think of; it’s up to you to decide which ones you want to use.

To see a few combinations, remove line

ram. (In MBASIC simply type

and press RETURN to delete the

90 from

the master prog-

line.) Now run the program once and enter “E” and “emphasized” in

response to the questions on the screen. This will give you the same

results as the first time you ran the program, but it will leave the

printer in emphasized mode so that you can add another mode. Then

run the program again (without turning off the printer). The second

time enter “W1” and “emphasized double-width.”

Your printout should be in the typestyle below, showing that the two modes combine with no trouble. You can experiment with other combinations if you wish or you can wait for the section later in this chapter that explains a special ESCape code, Master Select, which

allows you to combine as many as seven features with one ESCape

code.

emphasized

When you are through trying combinations, be sure to replace line 90 in the master program so that you can again try one feature at a time.

double-wid

Italic Mode

You may occasionally want to print italic words for emphasis, titles, or other uses. The LX-86 has italic mode to enable you to use italic characters for any purpose. Although characters produced by the previous modes in this manual are modifications of the standard pica characters, the LX-86 uses completely different characters for the italic mode. In the printer’s Read Only Memory (ROM) is a complete set of draft italic characters. You can see the difference between standard and italic draft characters in Figure 6-4.

Standard Pica Print

Italic Pica Print

Figure 6-4. Italic and pica

The code to turn italic mode on is ESCape “4”. Try it in the master

program if you wish. When you use this code in the master program, enter “4” in answer to the first question just as if it were a letter of the

alphabet instead of a number. ESCape “5” turns off italic mode.

Those of you who use this code in an applications program should remember that any character in quotation marks in our discussions of ESCape codes is an alphanumeric character, not a numerical value.

Underline Mode

The LX-86 also has a mode that will underline characters and spaces. You turn it on with ESCape “-1” and off with ESCape “-0". Note that the underline code is like the expanded code in that it uses a character, in this case the hyphen or minus sign, combined with numeral one to turn it on and a character combined with the numeral zero to turn it off. As you can see in Figure 6-5, this mode prints a dot in the bottom row of each column, thus producing a continuous underline.

This uses the underline mode.

Figure 6-5. The underline mode

As shown in Figure 6-5, the underline mode is continuous, but some word processing and other applications programs produce an underline that leaves spaces between characters as demonstrated in the printout below.

This uses the under-line character

If your software prints this type of underline, it is using the

LX-86’s underline character (ASCII %), not the underline mode.

Because the underline character is only five dots wide, it does not fill the spaces between characters. If you prefer a continuous underline,

you may be able to use the underline mode through one of the methods we discussed in Chapter 4.

Master Select

The LX-86 has a special ESCape code called Master Select that allows you to choose any possible combination of eight different modes: pica, elite, condensed, emphasized, double-strike, double-width, italic, and underline. The format of the Master Select code is ESCape ‘!” followed by a number that is calculated by adding together the values of the modes listed below:

underline italic

double-width 32

double-strike emphasized condensed elite pica

128

1 0

For any combination,. just add up the values of each of the modes

you want and use the total as the number after ESCape “!“. For

example,

add the following numbers together:

to calculate the code for double-width italic underlined pica,

underline

italic

double-width 32

pica

To print this combination, therefore, you use ESCape "!” followed by the number 224. In BASIC the command is CHR$(27)“!” CHR$(224).

To try this number or any other, enter and run this short program, which will ask you for a Master Select number and then give you a sample of printing using that code. Again, if you are using Applesoft BASIC, see Appendix F.

10 INPUT “Master Select number” ;M 20 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ”!“ CHR$(M) 30 LPRINT “This sample of printing uses ” 40 LPRINT

50 LPRINT CHR$(27) “@”

In this program, you can use any number you calculate with the

formula above, but remember that emphasized can’t combine with condensed or elite. If you try to combine emphasized with either of the two narrow pitches, you won’t harm your printer; it will simply use a priority list in its memory to determine which

mode to use. This priority list causes a corn bination of emphasized

and elite to produce elite only, a combination of emphasized and condensed to produce emphasized only, and a combination of all three to produce condensed elite.

"Master Select number";M

128

224

Master Select is a powerful code that gives you an easy way to

produce multiple combination's with a single command. To see double-strike emphasized italic printing, for example, you need only

one ESCape code instead of three.

Indeed, Master Select is such a powerful feature that it may occasionally be more powerful than you want it to be. Because it controls eight different modes, a Master Select code will cancel any of those eight that are not selected. For example, suppose that you have a page in elite and want part of it printing in italic. If you use ESCape “!” 64 to turn on italic, your LX-86 will begin printing in italic pica instead of italic elite because the 64 code does not include elite. Use 65 for italic elite.

Superscript and Subscript

Your LX-86 can also print superscripts and subscripts, which you can use for mathematical formulas, footnotes, and other items that require numbers or letters above or below the usual print line. ESCape “SO" turns on superscript and ESCape "S1" turns on subscript. ESCape “T” turns off either one. You can enter either ESCape

“SO" or ESCape “Sl" in the master program, but that will print the

whole sentence in superscript or subscript. Some more realistic examples are below:

E=MC

H20

This fact is found in three sources.7

vidual character. Just find out how to send printer codes in your

applications program; then send the proper codes to the printer.

As you can see, you can use superscript or subscript for an indi-

Special Characters

The LX-86 has three groups of special characters that can add distinction to your printing. Character Graphics, international characters, and the special graphics set.

Epson character graphics set

The Character Graphics set includes characters used by IBM

and compatible computers as well as international characters used

by IBM software. The characters in the set are shown on the next

Page.

You select the Character Graphics set in one of two ways: with an ESCape code or with a DIP switch.

The ESCape code in BASIC has the following format:

LPRINT CHR$(27)"t"CHR$(n)

If n is 1, the command turns the Character Graphics set on; if

n is 0, the command turns that set off.

If you prefer to have the Character Graphics set on most of the

time, see Appendix D for instructions on using the DIP switches.

The Character Graphics set is actually two sets, the standard and the international. The standard set contains only the characters in the last three rows shown below. The international set contains the characters in all four rows.

In order to print the international set, you must send the

ESCape “6” command. In BASIC it has the follwing format:

LPRINT CHR$(27)”6”

ESCape “7” returns you to the standard set.

See your software manual for further instructions on printing these characters. If you need the decimal or hexadecimal codes for them, see Appendix A.

International characters

As you know, you need a few extra characters for languages other than English. The LX-86 has provided for printing in many languages by having 96 international characters in its ROM (Read Only Memory). This total includes characters in three sets: draft italic, and NLQ (Near Letter Quality).

In order to print any of these characters, first select one of the

following character sets and then use the individual characters within that set.

Italy

Spain

8 Japan

Norway Denmark II

USA

France

Germany

United Kingdom

Denmark I Sweden

You select the character set in one of two ways: with an ESCape code or with a switch in the back of your printer. The ESCape code in BASIC has the following format:

LPRINT CHR$(27)“R”CHR$(n)

in which n stands for the appropriate number from the list above. In other words, the BASIC command to select the French character set is

LPRINT CHR$(27)“R”CHR$(1)

The other method of selecting an international character set is with the small switches, called DIP switches, in the back of the printer. If you plan to use one of the international sets quite a bit, see Appendix

D for instructions for using the DIP switches.

Once you have selected a character set, whether you do it with the

ESCape code or the DIP switches, you will be able to print several new characters. The character sets are shown in Tables 6-1, 6-2, and

6-3.

Table 6-l. International characters in NLQ mode

USA

FRANCE GERMANY

DENMARK I

SWEDEN

ITALY

SPAIN

JAPAN

NORWAY

DENMARK II

USA FRANCE GERMANY UK

DENMARK I

SWEDEN ITALY SPAIN JAPAN

NORWAY

DENMARK II

35 36

123

124

Table 6-2. International characters in draft mode

123

124

125

126

Table 6-3. International characters in draft italic

123

124 125

126

USA

FRANCE GERMANY

DENMARK

SWEDEN ITALY

SPAIN

JAPAN

NORWAY

DENMARK II

94 96

The number at the top of each column in the tables is the ASCII

code that prints the characters in that column.

Once you have selected an international character set with the DIP switches or the ESCape “R” code, you can use the tables to see which characters on your standard USA keyboard will produce the interna-

tional characters you want. Simply type the character from the top

row of one of the figures in order to print the corresponding character in the row of the set you have chosen. For example, if you have reset the DIP switches for the UK character set and you press the # key, the £ symbol will be generated. Even though you will see the # symbol on the screen, the £ symbol will be printed on the paper. For another example, if you have selected the Swedish character set and you press the @ key, the É symbol will be generated.

If your keyboard does not have one of the keys that you need, you will have to send the proper ASCII number to the printer in another way, such as a programming language or inserted or embedded codes.

Graphics character set

The Lx-86 printer’s Read Only Memory (ROM) also contains the

32 graphics characters that you see in Figure 6-6.

Figure 6-6. Special graphics characters

Undoubtedly you can think of uses for many of the shapes and

symbols available in this set, and you can combine the line graphics characters (the ones on the first row) to form various sizes and shapes of boxes and other figures that use straight lines.

To print these graphics characters you must use either a programming language or a computer with a graphics shift or other special key that allows you to send graphics codes.

Sending the codes for these characters to the printer is a two-step process just as it is for the international characters. In BASIC, first you send CHR$(27) set, then you send the code numbers given in Figure 6-6. After you have used the ESCape code to turn on the graphics character set, the LX-86 prints the codes from 128 through 159 as graphics characters.

“m”CHR$(4) to turn on the graphics character

You can change pitch and weight with the graphics characters just as you can with the other characters in the ROM of the LX-86. The characters in Figure 6-6 are printed in double-width elite. The printout below shows the characters in pica:

The next printout shows the characters in emphasized double-

width pica:

Because normal line spacing leaves space between the lines of graphics characters just as it does between lines of text, you must change the line spacing when you combine line graphics characters to form boxes or other figures. For most programs ESCape “1” gives you the best line spacing for combinations of graphics characters. Further details on line spacing are in Chapter 7.

In addition, there are commands to specify the line spacing in 72nds of an inch and 216ths of an inch. If you need to make such fine

adjustments in the line spacing see Appendix C for the proper

commands. In the chapter on dot graphics you will see how useful

ESCape

“1”

can be.

Chapter 7

Page Formatting

Although the LX-86 printer has many sophisticated commands to

set margins, line spacing, and horizontal and vertical tabs, we won’t take up your time with extensive discussions of these because most of these functions are taken care of by applications programs. This chap-

ter merely describes a few commands that the average user might need. If you want more information, you can find all the commands

in Appendixes B and C.

Margins

The LX-86 allows you to set the left and right margins with simple ESCape sequences. The left margin command is ESCape “1” followed by the number of the column you choose for the left margin. The right margin command is ESCape “Q” followed by the column number of the right margin you want. For the left margin command, be sure to use a lowercase letter 1, not the numeral one.

If your word processing program does not allow you to change the margins, you can send margin commands to your IX-86 with BASIC or another programming language before you print your documents. For example, if you prefer wider margins than your word processing program gives you, run the following BASIC program before printing. This program gives you a left margin of 10 and a right margin of 60, but you can use any numbers you prefer for the margin commands.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"1"CHR$(lO);

20 LPRINT CHR$(27)"Q"CHR$(60);

Such a program will also allow you to choose the margins you

prefer for program listings. Just remember that once you run a pro-

gram that sets margins, those margins are in effect until you change them with new margin commands or turn off or reset the printer.

You should be aware that a few applications programs reset the printer before each document or file they print. These programs will, of course, cancel your new margin settings. See Chapter 2 to find out how to test for a reset code in your program.

The maximum right margins on the LX-86 printer are 80 in

pica, 96 in elite, 137 in condensed, and 160 in condensed elite. For further information on this command see Appendix B.

Justification with NLQ

The NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode offers a justification command that will give you four choices in the formatting of your text. The command is ESCape “a” followed by one of these numbers:

Left justification

Centering

Right justification Full justification

Left justification is the standard format, in which the left margin is even and the right margin is not. This is the way most typewritten pages look.

The centering command centers a line of text between the margins.

This is handy for headings, titles, and captions.

Right justification is the opposite of left justification. The right

margin is even and the left is not.

Full justification puts extra spaces between words where necessary

so that both the left and right margins are even. This is the way most magazines, newspapers, and books (including this one) are printed. With this command, you may need a WIDTH statement. Since different systems use different WIDTH statements, see your computer or programming language manual for the proper format. Remember also to use carriage returns only at the end of paragraphs when you are using auto justification.

When you use any of the justification commands, be sure that you

send NLQ command first.

The justification command is designed to be used with BASIC or

another programming language, not with word processing

programs.

Skip Over Perforation

If you are using continuous pin-feed paper for printing program listings or other material not controlled by an applications program, you may find that the LX-86 prints right over the perforations between pages. The LX-86 has an ESCape code to prevent this: the ESCape “N” command. You send ESCape “N” followed by the

number of lines you want the LX-86 to skip at the bottom of a page. For example, in BASIC the following line will make the Lx-86 skip

six lines after each

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) “N” CHR$ (6) ;

Since a standard page is 66 lines, this will give you one inch of blank space at the bottom of each page. If you prefer to have half of

the blank space at the top of the page and half at the bottom, simply set the top of page approximately three lines (l/2 inch) below the perforation. (See Appendix E if you need to refresh your memory on setting the top of page.)

lines:

Line Spacing

Ordinarily you don’t have to worry about how the printer moves the paper so that it doesn’t print lines of text on top of each other; the

LX-86 takes care of this without any special instructions. If, however, you want to understand how line spacing works or you need to change the line spacing for a special application such as graphics, you’ll want to read this brief explanation of line spacing on the

Ix-86.

The movement of the paper between lines is called a line feed and the distance the paper moves is called a line space. In ordinary printing the line spacing is l/6-inch, which produces six lines of print per inch. Figure 7-l will help you visualize this spacing. As you can see in

the figure, the standard (default) spacing is the same as 12 rows of

dots. Since the Lx-86 characters use nine rows of dots, the 12-dot line spacing leaves three blank rows between the lines of text.

l/6 inch

3 blank rows

1/6 inch

3 blank rows

Figure 7-l. Standard line spacing

The default line spacing illustrated in Figure 7-l is the only one you need for almost all printing of text, but in some cases you may want to increase or decrease the space between lines. The LX-86 has several commands to do this. ESCape “0” decreases the line spacing to 9-dot (9/72-inch), ESCape “1” decreases it to 7-dot, and ESCape “2” returns it to 12-dot.

In addition, there are commands to specify the line spacing in 72nds

of an inch and 216ths of an inch. If you need to make such fine

adjustments in the line spacing see Appendix C for the proper

commands. In the chapter on dot graphics you will see how useful

ESCape “1” can be.

Paper-Out Sensor

Under the platen (the black roller) of your LX-86 printer is a small switch that senses whether or not paper is in the printer. When the end of the paper passes this switch, it sends a signal that sounds the beeper and stops your printing. This saves wear on your print head,

ribbon, and platen, but because of the distance between the switch and the print head, it stops the printing about 2 inches from the end of the page. Therefore, if you use single-sheet paper in your IX-86, you can’t print on the last 2 inches of each page without an adjustment.

For most computer systems, you merely send the printer an

ESCape “8” to deactivate the paper-out sensor or change one of the DIP switches described in Appendix D. Then you can print to the end of the page with single-sheet paper. Some systems, however, ignore the ESCape code and the DIP switch setting. If ESCape “8” or the DIP switch setting does not solve this problem for you, see Appendix F for other solutions.

Chapter 8

User-Defined Characters

The LX-86 has several hundred different characters stored in its ROM (Read Only Memory). Although this number includes draft, italic, international, character graphics, special graphics, and Near Letter Quality characters, sometimes you would like to have a few more. For those occasions when you need a special character or a few letters in a different typeface, the LX-86 allows you to create your own characters and print them just as if they were ordinary letters.

Defining Your Own Characters

The printout below displays a few such characters to give you an idea of what can be done, but remember that these characters are truly user-defined-you create what you need or want.

It may seem that designing a character and telling the LX-86 how to print it would be extremely complicated, but we have reduced the task to a simple three-step process: planning your character, running one program that tests your work and calculates the required DATA numbers, and running another program to put the character in your printer’s RAM (Random Access Memory) for use whenever you need it.

Because the high-resolution NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode uses many more dots per character than the draft mode, defining NLQ characters is somewhat more complex than defining draft characters. You will find the programs for defining NLQ characters at the end of this chapter.

After you have created your own characters with our programs, certain keys that you seldom use will generate the user-defined characters. For example, you will be able to type < to print .

Your user-defined characters can be utilitarian or imaginative, any-

thing from a scientific symbol to script letters for your initials. Just follow the simple steps below.

The only restriction on your creativity is that the characters you define must follow the same rules that govern the rest of the charac-

ters printed by the LX-86. They must fit into an 11 x 9 matrix, no dot can overlap another, and either the top or the bottom row must be

empty. Look at the enlargements of sample letters in Chapter 3 to see how the standard IX-86 characters are designed.

Designing Process

Suppose that you want to print the scientific symbol for the planet Mercury. Although the LX-86 has a number of special symbols, that is not one of them. You can, however, create and print such a symbol with ease. First, use a grid like the one in Figure 8-l to plan where to place the dots.

8 7 6 5 4 3

123456789

Figure 8-1.

Because the last two columns are reserved for the space between characters, we have not included them in the grid. And since most characters do not use the bottom two rows, we have used a heavy line to indicate the usual lower limit for an IX-86 character.

Grid

for designing draft characters

When you place your dots on this grid, remember that dots cannot go on horizontal lines, but they can go on vertical lines so long as they do not overlap any other dots. As you design your characters, draw the dots as large as you see them in the example on the left in Figure

8-2. If you draw them smaller, you may have overlapping dots with-

out realizing it.

overlapping dots

dot

horizontal

Figure 8-2. Correct and incorrect designs

line

If you do accidentally call for overlapping dots, don’t worry. The

program will still work, but only one of the dots will be printed.

First definition program

Once you have drawn your dots on the grid, type in the following BASIC program and run it. If you are using Applesoft BASIC, see Appendix F.

100 DIM F(9) 110 FOR I=1 TO 9 120 PRINT "WHICH ROWS HAVE DOTS IN COLUMN";I

130 INPUT R: IF R=0 THEN 150 140 F(I)=F(I)+2^(R-1) 150 IF R=0 THEN NEXT I ELSE GOT0 130 160 LPRINT CHR$(27)":

"CHR$(O)CHR$(O)CHR$(O);

170 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(l)CHR$(O);

180 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(O)CUR$(60)CHR$(60);

190 LPRINT CHR$(128);

200

FOR X=1 TO 9

210 LPRINT CHR$( F( X));:NEXT X 220 LPRINT CHR$(O) CHR$(0); 230 LPRINT "YOUR CHARACTER IN PICA: < < <" 240 LPRINT "IN DOUBLE-WIDTH EMPHASIZED PICA "; 250 LPRINT CHR$(27)"! *< < <" 260 LPRINT CHR$(27)

"! "CHR$(O)"YOUR DATA NUMBERS:" 270 FOR K=l TO 9: LPRINT F(K);: NEXT K 300 LPRINT: END

So that you can see how the program works, we’ll present the steps used to create the symbol for Mercury. First is the grid we used to design the character.

8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

123456789

Figure 8-3. Design for character

Running the program

Now run the program. For each of the nine columns, the program asks for the numbers of the rows in which you want dots to appear. Enter the row numbers one at a time, pressing the RETURN key after each one. When you have entered all the numbers for a column or when you want no dots in a column, press RETURN without a number. Remember that the vertical lines in the grid are the even-numbered columns.

To see Program 1 produce the character in Figure 6-4 run the program and follow these instructions: When the screen message asks what rows have dots in column

respond with RETURN to indicate that no dots go in that column. For column 2 (the vertical line), press 7, RETURN, 5, and RETURN again to indicate that you want dots in rows 7 and 5. Then press RETURN alone to indicate that no more dots go in column 2. For column 3 press 8, 6, 4, and 2, with a RETURN after each of them. Then press RETURN to finish with

column 3 and go on to column 4.

For column 4 press RETURN only. (The rest of the directions assume that you know to press RETURN after each number and one extra time to end the entries for each column.) For column 5, enter 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1. For column 6, press RETURN only; for column 7 enter 8,6,4, and 2; for column 8 enter 7 and

and for

column 9 press RETURN only.

Now wait a moment for your computer to calculate the dot patterns and your LX-86 to print the new character in two different typestyles. Your printout also gives you nine numbers, which you will use in the next program. You should get the printout you see below:

When you get to this point with a character of your own, you see how it looks and whether or not you like it. If you want to make any changes, move the dots as needed and re-run the program.

If you want to put dots in the bottom row, change the number in

line 190 from 128 to 0. Then the usable rows will be as shown in Figure 8-4 below.

4 3 2

123456789

Figure 8-4. Using the bottom eight rows

Second definition program

Once the character looks the way you want it to, enter, modify, and run the next program. The program as listed creates the Mercury character, but you can use it for any characters you create if you make one or two changes that we explain after the program listing.

90 FOR P=58 TO 63: LPRINT CHR$(P);" ";: NEXT P 95 LPRINT 100 K=l: IF K>3 THEN A=58 ELSE A=60 110 LPRINT CHR$(27)":

120 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(l)CHR$(O); 130 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(0)CHR$(A)CHR$( A-1+K);

140 FOR Z=1 TO K

150 LPRINT CHR$(128);

160 FOR X=1 TO 9

170 READ R

160 LPRINT CHR$(R);: NEXT X

190 LPRINT CHR$(O)CHR$(0); 200 NEXT Z 210 DATA 0,80,170,0,47,0,170,80,0 290 FOR P=58 TO 63: LPRINT CHR$(P);" ";: NEXT P

To use this program for your own character or characters, change the DATA numbers in line 210 by substituting the numbers generated by the first program when you created your own character. If you have created more than one character, put the DATA numbers for each character on a separate line as you see in the example below:

210

DATA

220

DATA

Check your work by making sure that there are nine numbers in each line and that the numbers are separated by commas.

112,8,0,138,116,138,0,8,112 56, 68, 146, 40, 130, 40, 130, 68, 56

"CHR$(O)CHR$(O)CHR$(O);

To define more than one character, use the total number of characters you are defining instead of the 1 in line 100. (You can define as many as six characters at a time. Just run the first program several times and enter all the DATA numbers in this program.)

Running the program

When you run this second program, it prints six characters, then

re-defines some or all of them and prints them again, as in the exam-

ple below.

The two lines when printed by your own program provide you with a key to the characters your LX-86 will now print. When you press the key for one of the characters in the top row, the printer will print the corresponding character in the bottom row. In the example above, if you type< your LX-86 will print (although your screen will continue to show the character < ).

Because the program puts these new definitions in your printer’s Random Access Memory (RAM), it will print the new characters (the ones in the bottom row) unless it is turned off or receives the reset code.

If you have designed a few characters and want to use them with your word processing program, for example, just run the second definition program before you start using your word processing program. Then use the two-line printout as your guide to tell you which keys to press for your new characters.

Defining NLQ Characters

Since NLQ characters use many more dots than draft characters, defining NLQ characters is more complex than designing draft ones. If you use the grid and the programs in this section, however, you will be able to design your own NLQ characters.

NLQ grid

Because the NLQ characters can use as many as 18 dots vertically and 12 dots horizontally, you plan your designs on a different grid than the one you used for draft characters.

128

54 32 16

8 4

2 1

128

64 32 16

8 4 2

128

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

Figure 8-5. Grid for NLQ characters

On this grid you can use any numbered line or space. As you can see, that includes the bottom line and the line on the right side. You should remember to leave one or two columns blank for space between characters, however.

Each NLQ character definition requires 36 data numbers. There-

fore, each vertical column must be divided into three sections for the calculation of data numbers. The process is not difficult once you get some practice using it.

Figure 8-6 shows a single column to make clear how the data

numbers are calculated. Notice that in designing NLQ characters we suggest using circles instead of dots to make it easier to keep track of overlapping dots.

First

data

number

Second

data

number

Third data number

128

32 18

128

32 16

128

64 32

8 4 2 1

8 4

2 1

=229

=28

=64

}

Figure 8-6. Data numbers

for one column

To calculate the data numbers for this column, you see which dots are used in the top group (the top eight positions) and add their values together. Then you go down to the middle group (the next 8 positions) and add the values of any dots that are used there.. Finally, you look at the bottom group (2 dot positions) and add together the

values used there.

If no dots are used in a group, the data number for that group is

zero. All zeros must be entered in the DATA statements for the NLQ definition programs.

Now we’ll show you how to use the NLQ character definition

with a simple arrow design. Figure 8-7 shows the design drawn on a

grid and the data numbers printed at the top or bottom of each column.

128

64 32

128

64 32 16

128

8 32 0 0

8 4

2 1

16 64 64 16

255 0 255 0 0 0 0 192

0 0

32 8

0 0 0 0

4 0 0

Figure 8-7. Arrow design and data numbers

If you look at each column individually, you can see how the data

numbers were calculated.

First NLQ definition program

Now type in and run the following program. It has the data numbers for the arrow design. For a character of your own, change the data numbers in lines 130-150.

10 LPRINT CHRS(27);"xl";

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);":"

;CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(O); 30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%";CHR$(l);CHR$(O); 40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"&";CHR$(O);"<<";

50 LPRINT CHR$(O);CHR$(12);CHRS(O);

60 FOR X=1 TO 36

70 READ C: LPRINT CHR$(C);

80 NEXT X

90 LPRINT "YOUR CHARACTER

PICA: < < <" 100 LPRINT "IN DOUBLE-WIDTH EMPHASIZED PICA: "; 110 LPRINT CHR$(27);"!*< < <" 120 LPRINT CHR$(27);"!";CHR$(O); 130 DATA 4,0,0,8,0,0,16,0,0,32,0,0 140 DATA 64,0,0,255,255,192,64,0,0,32,0,0 150 DATA 16,0,0,8,0,0,4,0,0,0,0,0

YOUR CHARACTER IN PICA:

IN DOUBLE-WIDTH EMPHASIZED PICA:

When you run this program for your own character, you find out whether or not it looks right to you. If it doesn’t, move the dots as needed, recalculate and change the data numbers, and run the prog-

ram again.

Second NLQ definition program

When you are satisfied with the character you have created, enter

and run the next program. Use your data numbers instead of the ones in lines 130-150. If you want to define more than one character, change line 10 so that J equals the total number of characters you are defining (the maximum is six) and enter the extra data numbers (36 for each character).

J=1: IF J>3 THEN A=58 ELSE A=60 LPRINT CHR$(27)"x"CHR$(l)

FOR X=58 TO 63: LPRINT CHR$(X)" ";: NEXT X

LPRINT

LPRINT CHR$(27)": LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(l)CHR$(0);

LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(0)CHR$(A)CHR$(A-1+J);

FOR Y=1 TO J

LPRINT CHR$(0)CHR$(12)CHR$(0);

100

FOR X=1 TO 36

"CHR$(O)CHR$(O)CHR$(0);

110 READ C: LPRINT CHR$(C); 120 NEXT X: NEXT Y 130 FOR X=58 TO 63: LPRINT CHR$(X)" ";: NEXT X 140

DATA 4,0,0,8,0,0,16,0,0,32,0,0

150

DATA 64,0,0,255,255,192,64,0,0,32,0,0

160

DATA 16,0,0,8,0,0,4,0,0,0,0,0

When you run this program it prints six characters, then redefines

one or more of them and prints them again. As with the draft characters, you use this two-line printout as a guide to the new characters your IX-86 will print. You can use them with an applications prog-

ram or a program you write yourself.

Chapter 9

Introduction to Dot Graphics

The Epson dot graphics mode allows your LX-86 printer to pro-

duce pictures, graphs, charts, or almost any other illustrative or crea-

tive material you can devise. Instead of using the standard letters, numerals, and symbols stored in the LX-86’s ROM (Read Only Memory), the graphics mode prints dots column by column and line by line. You plan where you want the dots to appear and then use a program to tell the LX-86 where to put them.

Because many software programs take advantage of Epson dot graphics, you may be able to print graphics like the ones on this page and the next by simply giving your software a few instructions. The chart on the next page, for example, was created and printed in about

minutes.

Bookstore Inventory

MAGAZINES

SCIENCE FICTION

ROMANCE

CLASSICS

MYSTERIES

-----

BEST-SELLERS

NON-FICTION

WESTERNS

If you have a program that produces graphics, all you need to know about Epson dot graphics is how to use the software. If, on the other hand, you wish to do your own programming or merely

wish to understand how the LX-86 prints graphics, read on.

Dot Patterns

The Lx-86 forms graphic images approximately the same way that pictures in newspapers and magazines are printed. If you look closely at a newspaper photograph, you can see that it is made up of many small dots. The Ix-86 also forms its images with patterns of dots. In fact, the resolution of Epson graphics is higher than that of standard newspaper photographs because the LX-86 graphics mode allows as many as 240 dot positions per inch horizontally and 72 vertically. The images you print on the Ix-86 can, therefore, be as finely detailed as the one on the first page of this chapter.

If you plan carefully where you want the dots to appear and then

use or create a program that gives the proper instructions to the

printer, your LX-86 will print nearly any pattern or figure you can

imagine.

Print Head

The graphics mode on the LX-86 is quite different from the text modes. Instead of sending codes for letters and printing functions, you send codes for dot patterns, one number for each column in a line. Since none of the predefined characters or symbols in the printer’s memory is used, your program controls where each dot is printed.

For each column on a print line, the print head prints the pattern of dots you have specified. In the standard graphics mode it uses only the top eight pins on the print head because the computer uses eight data lines to communicate with the printer. Therefore, each of the top eight pins of the print head corresponds to one of the data lines.

To print figures taller than eight dots, the print head makes more

than one pass. It prints one line, then advances the paper and prints another, just as it does with text. To keep the print head from leaving gaps between the graphics lines as it does between the text lines, the line spacing must be adjusted to eliminate the space between lines.

When the line spacing is properly adjusted, the LX-86 prints finely detailed graphics images that give no indication that they are made

up of separate lines, each no more than 1 / 8 of an inch high.

To ensure the proper alignment of dots in figures that use more than one pass of the print head, the LX-86 abandons the bidirectional printing it uses for draft text. Instead it prints graphics from left to right only.

Each pass of the print head contains one piece of the total pattern, which can be as tall or short and as wide or narrow as you desire. You don’t have to fill the whole page or even an entire line with your graphics figures. In fact, you can use as little or as much space as you like for a figure and put it anywhere on the page.

Graphics Mode

The graphics mode command is quite different from the other commands covered so far in this manual. For most of the other LX-86 modes, such as italic and emphasized, one ESCape code turns the mode on and another turns it off. For graphics, the command is more complicated because the code that turns on a graphics mode also specifies how many columns it will use.

The LX-86 has several different graphics densities, but we’ll keep things simple by using only one in the first exercises. The code for entering single-density graphics mode is ESCape “K” nl n2. In Microsoft BASIC the command is given in this format:

LPRINT CHR$(27)“K”CHR$(Nl)CHR$(N2);

ESCape “K” specifies single-density graphics, and the next two numbers (n1 and n2) specify the number of columns reserved for graphics.

The graphics command requires more than one number to specify how many columns to reserve because as many as 1920 columns are possible in graphics printing. Since the LX-86 uses eight digit binary numbers, it can’t accept decimal numbers larger than 255. Therefore, the graphics mode command uses two numbers for reserving columns.

The number of columns reserved is the first number plus 256 times the second number. Since the command is set up for two numbers, you must supply two even if you only need one. When you need less than 256 columns, just make nl the number of columns you are reserving and make n2 a zero.

Pin Labels

Once you put the printer into graphics mode and reserve the number of columns you want, your next step is to tell the print head which pins to fire in each column. There are 256 possible combinations of eight pins, and you send only one number for each column. The numbering system that allows you to use a single number to specify which of the 256 possible patterns you want is shown in Figure

9-l.

128

64 32

8 4 2

not used

Figure 9-1. Pin labels

To fire any one pin, you send its number. To fire more than one pin at the same time, add up the numbers of the pins and send the sum to the printer. With these labels for the pins, you fire the top pin by sending 128. To fire the bottom graphics pin, you send 1. If you want to fire only the top and bottom pins, you simply add 128 and 1, then send 129.

By adding the appropriate label numbers together, you can fire any combination of pins you want. Figure 9-2 shows you three examples of how to calculate the number that will fire a particular pattern of pins.

not used

128

8 4 2 1

128

64 32

8 4 2 1

not used

Figure 9-2. Calculating numbers

for

128 64 32

4 2

not used

pin patterns

With this numbering system any combination of the eight pins adds up to a unique decimal number between 0 and 255. Although you use a decimal number, it is, of course, converted to a binary number before it goes to the printer.

Now that you know the principles of Epson graphics, we’ll give you two simple exercises, more densities, and then something more complex as a basis for writing your own programs.

First Graphics Program

For your first graphics exercise we could give you a program that prints a single column of dots, but it is difficult to see the pattern of a single column of dots, so your first graphics program prints the same pattern 40 times.

The first line is the code for 40 columns of single-density graphics. As usual, our example is in Microsoft BASIC, but you can adapt it to theprogramming language you prefer.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"K"CHR$(40)CHR$(0);

The second line is the data that is printed as pin patterns. Be sure that you type in the semicolons in both lines:

20 FOR X=1 TO 40: LPRINT CHR$(74);: NEXT X

That’s it. Run the program to see the result below. Although it is not as interesting as the examples at the beginning of this chapter, it does allow you to see exactly how the mode works.

Multiple-Line Exercise

Now that you’ve entered and run a simple graphics program, we’ll go on to an exercise that shows you how the LX-86 combines several lines of graphics for a figure taller than eight dots.

Start with a line for 100 columns of single-density graphics and

lines to print two pin patterns. Notice that since there are two pin

patterns in the loop, it is only executed 50 times.

30 LPRINT CHR$(27)"K"CHR$(100)CHR$(O); 40

FOR X=1 TO

50: LPRINT CHR$(85)CHR$(42);

50 NEXT X

If you run the program now, you’ll see how one line of the pattern

looks:

To see a how more than one line combines to form a figure, enter

and run the following program, which uses two of the lines you have

already typed and adds several more.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"1";

FOR R=1 TO 3

30 LPRINT CHR$(27)"K"CHR$(100)CHR$(0);

FOR X=1 TO

50: LPRINT CHR$(85)CHR$(42); 50 NEXT X: LPRINT 60

LPRINT CHR$(27)“K"CHR$(100)CHR$(O);

FOR X=1 TO 50: LPRINT CHR$(42)CHR$(85); 80 NEXT X: LPRINT: NEXT R 90

LPRINT CHR$(27)"@"

Now run the program to see the six print lines combine into a

pattern:

The short and simple program that produced the pattern demon-

strates many elements of graphics programming. Therefore, we’ll explain each line. Line 10 changes the line spacing to ‘/-dot, which is the height of the dot patterns used in the program. Therefore, there is no space between the print lines.

Line 20 begins a loop to produce multiple print lines. Lines 30 and 40 were covered above, but an LPRINT is added to line 50 to produce a line feed after line 40. Lines 60 and 70 are like lines 30 and 40 except that lint! 70 uses a reversal of the patterns in line 40. As the loop is executed, the program prints lines 40 and 70 alternately so that the patterns of the print lines will fit together well.

Notice that the graphics command can be in effect for only one print line. The command is in lines 30 and 60 so that it is issued each time a new print line is begun. You cannot print more than one line of graphics without having the graphics command issued more than once.

Line 90 is the reset code to return the printer to its defaults.

Density Varieties

Although all the examples so far in this chapter have been in the single-density graphics mode, the LX-86 offers five other eight-pin density modes and two nine-pin ones. Nine-pin graphics is not necessary for most uses, but you can find its command (Escape “ ^ “) in Appendix C. All the eight-pin densities and their commands are

described in Table 9-l.

Mode

Table 9-l. Graphics modes

Density

0 1 2

4 5

Single Low-Speed

Double High-Speed

Double

Quadruple

CRT One-to-one

(plotter)

90 dots/inch

Alternate

code

ESC "K" ESC "L" ESC "Y"

ESC "Z"

none

60 dots/inch:

480 dots/8" line 120 dots/inch

960 dots/8 line 120 dot positions/inch

Faster than Mode 1; does not print consecutive dots in a row.

240 dot positions/inch; 1920 dot positions/8" line. Does not print consecutive dots in a row.

80 dots/inch; 640 dots/8" line

72 dots/inch; 576 dots/8" line Produces the same density horizontally as vertically, which makes circles look round.

90 dots/inch; 720 dots/8" line

Description

You are familiar with the command format that uses the ESCape code and a letter, but LX-86 graphics commands can also be in the following format:

LPRINT CHR$(27)“*“CHR$(M)CHR$(N1)CHR$(N2);

with m being the mode number found in the left column of Table 9-1. As usual, nl and n2 reserve the number of columns for graphics. The

seven modes include six densities, with two speeds for doubledensity.

Reassigning Code

The IX-86 has a graphics command that changes one graphics

mode to another. You can use it with many commercial graphics software programs to change the density and shape of your printouts. The code is ESCape graphics codes (K, L, Y, or Z) and n is the number of the new code (O-6).

For example, if you send the following code before you run a graphics program, it will change every instance of mode “Y” (highspeed double-density) to mode 5 (one-to-one).

LPRINT CHR$ (27) “?Y” CHR$ (5) ;

As usual, this example is in MBASIC, but you can send the code in any programming language.

“?s” n, where s is one of the four alternate

Even if you don’t know which code your graphics program uses, a little experimentation should tell you whether the reassigning code can improve your graphics printouts.

Column Reservation Numbers

Now that we’ve introduced you to the rest of the 8-pin graphics densities and the reassigning code, we’ll explain in more detail the part of the graphics command that reserves the number of columns for

graphics (the numbers nl and n2 in our examples).

If you need fewer than 255 columns of graphics, n1, is the number

of columns you want and n2 is zero. As you can see in Table 9-1, however, a single line will hold as many as 1920 columns in quadruple-density. Specifying more than 255 is where the second number

slot (n2) fits in. The first number that you send (n1) indicates a number of columns, but the second does not represent a number of

columns; it is multiplied by 256 and added to nl. The command for

the maximum number of dots you can reserve on the IX86, then, is:

CHR$(27)"Z"CHR$(128)CHR$(7);

or, in the other format:

CHR$(27)"*"CHR$(3)CHR$(l28)CHR$(7);

which is

row.

you can have your program do the calculations for you with the

following format:

N is the total number of columns you want to specify. The MOD (modulus) function calculates the value for nl, and the INT (integer) function calculates the value for n2. For programming languages other than BASIC, consult your manual for the proper form for these functions.

value of N up to the maximum number of columns per line for that density.

128

dots plus 7 times 256 dots, for a total of 1920 dots in one

Once you have chosen the number of columns you want to use,

CHR$ (27) "L" CHR$ (N MOD 256) CHR$ (INT(N/256));

This format can be used with any graphics density and with any

WIDTH Statements

Many computer systems automatically insert the control codes for a carriage return and a line feed after every 80 characters. This insertion is usually no problem with text, but it can spoil your graphics. In the graphics mode they may insert the control codes after 120 columns, which could be in the middle of a line.

You can usually prevent these unwanted control codes with a WIDTH statement such as the one below:

WIDTH LPRINT 255

The format for your system may be different. Consult your computer

or computer language manual to find the correct format for your system. Then put a WIDTH statement in one of the first lines of all your graphics programs. It is easier to put a WIDTH statement in all but the simplest of your programs than to examine each one to see whether or not such a statement is necessary.

Design Your Own Graphics

In this section we take you through the development of a graphics program. The example is not especially complicated, but it does include the same steps you would use for a more complex figure so that you have the basis for designing graphics on your LX-86.

You will plan your figure with dots on graph paper, but before beginning to place the dots, you should decide which graphics density you want. Figure 9-3 shows the differences between the three mostused graphics modes so that you can choose the one you want.

Single

Figure 9-3. Designing in different densities

High-speed

Double

Low-speed

Double

In this figure you can see the main rules for graphics design in the three densities. In single density no dots can be placed on vertical lines. In high-speed double density dots can be placed on vertical lines, but no dots can overlap. In low-speed double density dots can be placed on vertical lines and they can overlap.

Now look at our figure designed for high-speed double density. It should point you in the right direction for your own designs.

Figure 9-4. Arrow design

After plotting all the dots as in Figure 9-4, you calculate the num-

bers for each pin pattern by dividing the design grid into separate print lines. For the arrow design the grid was divided into three lines, each seven dots high. Then each column was examined and the sums of the pin values determined. This process for the first line is shown in Figure 9-5. The pin values are on the left side and the sums are at the bottom of each column.

Those of you who have read the previous chapter will see that

designing graphics is much like designing user-defined characters.

8 10 8 8 8 8 8 8 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 23 4 1 0 0

4 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 8 2 0 0 0

Figure 9-5. First line of arrow figure

The numbers for the second and third lines were calculated in the same manner. Once the numbers for the pin patterns are calculated, they go in DATA statements, separated by commas.

First we’ll give you the whole program and its printout; then we’ll

explain two techniques we have not used before:

90 WIDTH LPRINT 255

100 LPRINT CHR$(27)"1" 590 FOR K=1 TO 3 600 LPRINT CHR$(27)"Y"CHR$(50)CHR$(0); 610 READ 620 IF

IF N=128 THEN 650

N>=0

THEN LPRINT CHR$(N);: GOT0 610 630 READ P,R: FOR J=1 TO -N 632 LPRINT CHR$(P)CHR$(R);: NEXT J 640 GOT0 610

650 LPRINT: NEXT K: LPRINT CHR$(27)"@": END

800 DATA 8, 4, 10, 1, -6, 8, 0, 4, 0, 2, 0, 1, -9, 0, 0, 0

805 DATA 23, 8, 4, 2, 1, -2, 0, 0, 0, 128

810 DATA 0, 0, 0, 0, 84, 32, 17, 10, 4, 0, -6, 0, 0, -10

815 DATA 64, 0, 0, 0, 0, 84, 32, 17, 10, 4, 128

820 DATA 2, 4, 10, 18, 34, 64, -5, 2, 0, 4, 0, 8, 0, 16

825 DATA 0, -9, 32, 0, 61, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 0, 0, 0, 128

In this program we used the number 128 in the DATA statements to signal the end of a print line. This is the reason for the IF-THEN statement in line 610 that skips to line 650 and causes a line feed.

The other special technique used in this program is found in lines 620 and 630. Since some of the data numbers are repeated many times, we save typing by using negative DATA numbers for repetitions. Line 620 tests for a negative number, and if it finds one, reads the next two numbers and prints their pin patterns the number of times indicated by the negative number.

For example, when the minus 6 in line 800 is read, the program then reads the next two numbers (8 and 0) and sends them to the printer six times. This feature is not a necessary part of the program, but it does allow you to type fewer data numbers.

Otherwise the program is a straightforward graphics program that uses 7-dot line spacing and reads numbers from DATA statements and sends them to the printer. If you want to see the figure in other densities, change the “Y” in line 600 to “L” or “Z”.

Graphics Programming Tips

Now that we’ve shown you how to design your own graphics,

we’ll review and emphasize a few elements of graphics programming.

As usual, we use MBASIC in the examples, but the principles apply to any programming language.

Semicolons and command placement

After the graphics command is issued, every number sent to the IX-86 is interpreted as a pin pattern and printed on paper. Therefore, you must be careful where you put graphics commands in your

program.

For example, suppose you want a SO-column graphics line with the

line spacing set to T-dot. You might enter the following program:

20 LPRINT CHR$( 27) “K”CHR$( 50)CHR$(0)

30 LPRINT CHR$( 27) "1"

40 FOR G=1 TO 50: LPRINT CHR$(74): NEXT G

This program has all the necessary elements. Line 20 has the com-

mand for single-density graphics and specifies 50 columns. (Remember that you must use two numbers to reserve columns even if you only need the first one.) Line 30 has the correct command for T-dot line spacing, and line (If you wish, refer back to Figure 9-2 to see a representation of the pin pattern that 74 produces.)

calls for the printing of a pin pattern 50 times.

Although this program has all the necessary elements, it will not give you the single pin pattern that you want, as you can see in the partial printout in Figure

9-6.

J J

Expected pattern

Figure 9-6. Result of incorrect program

Actual result

What went wrong? To help you understand the graphics command and avoid some of the more common errors made with it, we’ll examine this program in detail.

First look at line 20. ESCape “K” calls for single-density graphics,

and the two CHR$ numbers specify 50 columns of dots. Once that command is given, every number sent to the printer is interpreted as a pin pattern and printed on the paper. Since there is no semicolon at the end of the line, the numbers 13 and 10-the codes for carriage return and line feed-are sent to the printer after CHR$(0). Because the graphics command has been issued, these codes are printed as pin patterns.

Line 30 would normally be the command for 7-dot line spacing,

but since the graphics mode is still in effect, the command is inter-

preted by the printer as two pin patterns: 27 and 49 (the ASCII codes

for ESCape and “1”). Since there is no semicolon at the end of this line, the numbers 13 and 10 are sent again, and again they are printed as pin patterns.

In line 40 nothing is sent to the printer until after the LPRINT.

Then the desired pin pattern-74-is finally sent, but since no semi-

colon is after it, 13 and 10 are sent next each time the loop is executed.

Figure 9-7 is an enlarged representation of the first 13 columns of the printout. In this figure you can see exactly how the printer reacted to the first part of the incorrect program.

128

32 16

10 49 10

74 10 13 74

13 74 10

Figure 9-7. Pin patterns of incorrect program

You may also wonder why the program prints not only the differ-

ent pin patterns but also the character “J” a number of times. The reason lies in the number of columns you reserved with the graphics command. After the LX-86 receives all the numbers reserved by a graphics command-50 in this case-it leaves the graphics mode and resumes interpreting numbers as printable characters or print commands.

Since the incorrect program has sent many extra numbers, mainly

10s

and

13s,

the 50 columns reserved are filled before the loop in line

40 has been executed 50 times. Therefore, during the last passes of the loop the Ix-86 interprets CHR$(74) as the ASCII code for “J” and prints that character each of the last 35 passes of the loop.

If you want to make the program work correctly, put the linespacing command in line 10, delete line 30, and add two semicolons: one at the end of line 20 and one between CHR$(74) and the colon in line 40.

We have explained this incorrect program in detail so that you will

remember two important tips about using the graphics command:

l Use semicolons to prevent the LX-86 from printing carriage re-

turn and line feed codes as pin patterns.

l Do not put any other commands between the graphics command

and its data.

Our example should help you understand the graphics mode better and may help you find the problem when one of your own programs gives you unexpected results.

String variables

In a long and complicated graphics program, typing in the graphics

command or repetitive data numbers over and over can become timeconsuming. You can avoid much of the repetitive typing by storing commands and data in string variables.

Look at the program below. It is the same as the multiple-line exercise earlier in the chapter except for the string variables.

10 G$=-CHR$( 27) + ”K” + CHR$( 100) + CHR(0) 20 A$=CHR$(85)+CHR$(42)

30 B$=CHR$(42)+CHR$(85)

40 LPRINT CHR$( 27 ”1” ;

50 FOR R=l TO 3

60 LPRINT G$;

70 FOR X=1 TO 50: LPRINT A$;: NEXT X

80 LPRINT

90 LPRINT G$;

100 FOR X=1 TO 50: LPRINT B$;: NEXT X

110 LPRINT: NEXT R

120 LPRINT CHR$( 27) “@”

Notice that the first line stores the whole graphics command in a single string variable. In order to do this you must put plus signs between the elements of the command. Once you have done this at the beginning of the program, each time you enter LPRINT G$; you have issued the graphics command. Lines 20 and 30 do the same thing with the data used in this program. As you can see, the use of string

variables saves some typing even in this short program. In a long program it can save you much more time and effort.

Graphics and low ASCII codes

Sending a few of the codes between 0 and 31 with BASIC or

another programming language can cause problems on some computer systems. The problem is that most computer systems handle some

of these codes in a special way instead of delivering them to the

printer.

For example, one computer system handles form feeds by itself. It counts lines to keep track of the top of page. If a program sends the ASCII code for form feed (12) to the printer, the computer system intercepts it and sends instead the code for line feed (10) several times. If you are in a graphics mode with this system and send a 12 to fire

pins 3 and 4, the computer system will intercept that 12 and send

several 10s instead. You can see how this would ruin your graphics.

You would get pins 2 and 4 (whose sum is 10) several times instead of pins 3 and 4 only once.

If your computer system screens out or changes any codes sent to it, you can often design around these problems by using other numbers with similar patterns, and you can see Appendix F for a method to determine which codes may cause problems and for some ideas on overcoming those problems.

Appendix A

IX-86 Characters

This appendix gives the control codes and characters for each code

from 0 through

the characters in the Epson Character Graphics set.

Further information on the character sets is in Chapter 6.

255

decimal

(00

through FF hex). Page A-3 shows

A-l

Dec Hex CHR Dec Hex CHR

00 none

5 05 6 06 none 7 8 08

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 10 17 18 12 19 13 20 21

23 24 25 26 1A none 27 28 1C none 29 30 1E none

32 20 SP 33 34 35 36 24 37 25 % 38 26 & 39 40 28 41 42 43 44 2C , 45 2D 46 2E 47 2F 48 30 49 50 51 52 53 54 36

5556 57 58 59 60

61 3D

62 63 3F

none 02 none 03 none 04

none

none 07

BEL

OAHTLF OB

VT OC

FF OD CR OE

SO OF

none

DC2

none

DC4

none

CAN

ESC

none

none 21

”

* $

' (

)

. /

5 6

;

3E >

64 40 65

41 66 42 67

43 68 44 69 45 70 46 71

47 72

49 74

4A 75

4B K 76

4C 77

4D M 78

4E 79 4F 80 50 81 51 82 52 83 53 84

54 85 55 86 56 87

57 88 58 89 59 90

5A 91

5B 92

5C 93

5D 94

96 60 ' 97

61 98 62 99 63 c

100

64 d

101

102

103

104

105

106

107

108

109

6D m

110

111

112

113

114

115

116 73

116 74 117 75 118 76 119 77 120 78 x 121

122

123

124

125

126

7E ~

127

DEL

@ A B C D E

G H

L N

S T

V W X Y

[

\ ] ^

----

e f

h j

n o p

t u

Dec

Hex CHR

128

129

81 130 82 131

83 132 84 133

85 134

86 135

87 136 88 137

89 138

8A 139

8B 140

8C 141

8D 142

8E 143

8F 144

90 145

91 146 92 147

93 146

94 149 95 150 96 151

97 152

98 153

99 154

v w

{ |

}

9A 155

9B 156

9C 157

9D 158 9E 159

9F 160

AO 161

Al 162

A2 163

164

A4 165

A5 166

A6 167

168

A6 169

A9 170

AA 171

AB 172

AC 173

AD 174

AE 175

AF 176 177 178

B2 179 180

B4 181

B5 182 183 184

B8 185

B9 186 187 188

BC 189 190

BE 191

BO B1

B6 B7

BA BB

Dec

192 193 194 195 196 197 198

199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 D1 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 EO

225

226 E2 227 E3

228 E4

229 E5 230 E6 231

232 E8 233 234 235 236 237 238 EE

239 240 F0 241 242 F2

243 F3 244 245

246 F6

247 F7 246 F8 249 250 FA 251 252

253 254 FE 255 FF

Hex

Cl C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 CA CB CC CD CE CF D0

D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 D9 DA DB DC DD DE DF

E7 E9

EA EB EC ED

EF F1

F4 F5

F9 FB

FC FD

CHR

A-2

Epson Character Graphics

Standard International

Dec Hex CHR

128

80 none

129

81 130 131 132 133 134 135 87 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 94 149 150 151

152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159

160 161 Al 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 AA 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182

183 184

185

186 187 188 BC 189 190 191

none 82 none 83 none 84 none 85 none 86 none

BEL 88

BS 89

HT 8A

LF 8B VT 8C

FF 8D CR 8E

SO 8F

SI 90 none 91

none

DC2 93 none

DC4 95 none 96 none 97 none

CAN 99

EM 9A

none 9B

ESC 9C

none 9D

none 9E none 9F none

A0 A2

A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 A9

AB AC AD

AF B0 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6

B7 B8

BA BB

BD BE BF

Dec Hex CHR

192 C0 193 C1 194 C2 195 C3 196 C4 197 C5 198 C6 199 C7 200 C8 201 C9 202 CA

203 CB

204 CC 205 CD 206 CE 207 CF 208 DO 209 D1 210 D2 211 D3 212 D4 213 D5 214 D6 215 D7 216 D8 217 D9 218 DA 219 DB 220 DC 221 DD 222 DE 223 DF 224 EO 225 E1 226 E2 227 E3 228 E4 229 E5 230 E6 231 E7 232 E8 233 E9 234 EA 235 EB 236 EC 237 ED 238 EE 239 EF 240 F0 241 F1 242 F2 243 F3

244 F4

245 F5

246 F6

247 F7 248 F8 249 F9 250 FA 251 FB 252 FC 253 FD 254 FE 255 FF

Dec Hex CHR

128 80 129 81 130 82 131 83 132 84 133 85 134 86 135 87 136 88 137 89 138 8A 139 8B 140 8C 141 8D 142 8E 143 8F 144 90 145 91 146 92 147 93 148 94 149 95 150 96

151 97

152 98 153 99

154 9A

155 9B 156 9C 157 9D

158 9E

159 9F 160 A0 161 A1 162 A2

163 A3 164 A4

165 A5 166 A6 167 A7 168 A8 169 A9 170 AA 171 AB

172 AC 173 AD 174 AE 175 AF 176 B0 177 B1

178 B2 179 B3 180 B4

181 B5 182 B6 183 B7 184 B8

185 B9 186 BA 187 BB 188 BC

189 BD 190 BE 191 BF

Dec Hex CHR

192 C0 193 C1 194 C2 195 C3 196 C4 197 C5 196 C6 199 C7

200 C8

201 C9

202 CA

203 CB 204 CC 205 CD 206 CE

207 CF

208 DO

209 D1

210 D2

211 D3

212 D4

213 D5

214 D6 215 D7 216 D8 217 D9 218 DA 219 DB 220 DC 221 DD 222

223

224

225

E1 226 E2 227 E3 228 E4 229 E5 230 E6 231

E7 232 E8 233 E9 234

EA 235 EB 236 EC 237

ED 238

EE 239 EF 240 F0 241

F1 242 F2 243 F3

244 F4

245 F5 246 F6 247 F7 248 F8 249 F9 250

FA 251

FB 252

FC 253

FD 254 FE 255

A-3

Appendix B

Commands in Numerical Order

This appendix lists all the LX-86 commands in numerical order. The page number column indicates where a complete description can be found.

Note that for commands from ESC SO onwards, the decimal and hexadecimal columns show only the second code; the first code for those commands is the ESCape code.

B-l

ASCII BEL

BS HT LF VT FF CR so SI DC1 DC2 DC3 DC4 CAN DEL ESC SO ESC SI ESC EM ESC ! ESC % ESC & ESC * ESC ESC /

ESC 0 ESC 1 ESC 2

ESC 3 ESC 4 ESC 5

ESC 6

ESC 7

ESC 8

ESC 9

ESC :

ESC <

ESC ?

ESC @

ESC A

ESC B 66

ESC C

ESC CO

ESC D 68

ESC E

ESC F

Dec

11 12 13 14

20 24

127

15 25 33

37 38 42 45 47 48 49

51 33

52 34

53 35

54 36

57 39

67 43

Hex Description

09 0A 0B 0C

0D 0E OF

11 12 13 14 18 7F 0E

21 25 26 2A 2D 2F 30

31 32

3A 3C

3F 40 41 42

43 44

45 46

Beeper Backspace Tab horizontally Line feed Tab vertically Form feed

Carriage return Select double-width (1 line) Select condensed mode

Select printer Cancel condensed mode Deselect printer Cancel double-width (1 line)

Cancel line Delete character

Select double-width (1 line)

Select condensed mode

Automatic sheet feeder on/off

Master select

Select user-defined set

Define user-defined characters

Select graphics mode

Turn underlining on/off

Select vertical tab channel

Select l/8 inch line spacing

Select 7 I7 2 inch line spacing

Select 1 / 6 inch line spacing

Select n/216 inch line spacing

Select italic mode

Cancel italic mode

International character set

Select standard character set

Disable paper out sensor

Enable paper out sensor

Copy ROM into RAM

Unidirectional mode ( 1 -line)

Reassign graphics mode

Initialize the printer

Select n/ 72 inch line spacing Set vertical tabs Set page length in lines

Set page length in inches

Set horizontal tabs

Select emphasized mode

Cancel emphasized mode

Page ref

C-24 c-9

c-17 c-11 c-17 c-13 C-23 c-3 c-2 C-6 c-2 C-6 c-3 C-24 C-24 c-3 c-2 c-10 c-7 c-20 c-20 c-22 C-6 c-17 c-11

c-12 c-12 c-12 c-7 c-7

c-9 c-9 c-14 c-14 c-19 c-10 C-23 c-7 c-13 C-16 c-14 c-15 C-18

C-4

c-4

B-2

ASCII

ESC G ESC H ESC J ESC K ESC L ESC M ESC N ESC O

ESC P

ESC Q ESC R ESC SO ESC Sl ESC T ESC U

ESC W

ESC Y

ESC Z

ESC /\

ESC a

ESC b

ESC e

ESC f

ESC 1

ESC m

ESC s ESC t

ESC x

Dec

71 72 74 75 76 77 78 4E 79 80 81 82 83 83 84 85 55 87 89 90 94 97

98 101 102 108

109 115 116 120

Hex

47 48 4A 4B 4C 4D Select elite pitch

50 51 52 53 53 54

57 59 5A 5E 61 62 65 66 6C 6D Special graphic characters 73 74 78

Description

Select double-strike mode

Cancel double-strike mode

Perform n/ 216 inch line feed

Single density graphics

Double density graphics

Set skip over perforation

Cancel skip over perforation

Select pica pitch Set right margin

International character set

Select superscript mode Select subscript mode Cancel superscript/subscript Select unidirectional mode Turn double-width on/off High speed dbl. den. graphics Quadruple density graphics

Nine-pin graphics

Select justification Set vertical tabs in channels Set tab increments Horizontal / Vertical skip Set left margin

Half speed mode on/ off Set character table Select print mode

Page ref

c-5 c-5 c-13 c-20 c-21 c-4 c-15

c-15

c-4 c-19

C-8 c-5 c-5 c-5 c-10

c-3 c-21 c-22 C-23 c-2 C-16 C-18 C-18 c-19 C-8 c-11 C-8 c-1

B-3

Control Key Chart

Some applications programs can use control key codes for decimal

values O-27. The table below gives you the proper values. The Control key column indicates that you press the control key at the same time you press the key for the letter or symbol in that column. For example, you press the control key and A at the same time to send the value

Some programs that use this system cannot use control-@, and

many programs use the control keys for other purposes.

Decimal Hexadecimal

01 2 02 3 4 5 6

7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14 15

03 04 05 06 07 08 09

16 10 17

11 18 12 19

20 21 22

23 17 24 25

Control key

F G H

L M N 0

T U V

X Y

B-4

Appendix C

Command Summary

This appendix lists and describes all the commands available on

the LX-86. This summary is divided into the following topics: Near Letter Quality

Character Width Print Enhancement Mode and Character Set Special Features

Line Spacing

Each command has a format section and a comment section. The format section gives the ASCII, decimal, and hexadecimal codes for the command, and the comment section describes and explains the command.

For a list of the commands in numerical order, see Appendix B.

Forms Control Page Format User-defined Characters Dot Graphics

Miscellaneous Codes

Near Letter Quality

ESC x

Format:

ASCII code: ESC x (n) Decimal: Hexadecimal: 1B

120

78 (n)

(n)

Select Print Mode

Explanation:

Selects draft mode if n = 0, or Near Letter Quality (NLQ) mode

If n=1 .

c-1

ESC

Format:

ASCII code: Decimal: Hexadecimal: 1B 61 (n)

Explanation:

See Chapter 7 for information on this command.

ESC

27 97 (n)

Select Justification Mode

Character Width SI

Format:

ASCII code: Decimal: Hexadecimal: OF

Explanation:

This command is only effective in draft mode. It produces characters that are approximately 60% of their normal width.

Select Condensed Mode

ESC SI

Format:

ASCII code: Decimal: 27 15 Hexadecimal: 1B OF

Explanation:

Duplicates the SI command.

DC2

Format:

ASCII code:

Decimal:

Hexadecimal: 12

Explanation:

This command cancels the condensed printing selected by SI

and ESC SI.

c-2

ESC SI

DC2

Select Condensed Mode

Cancel Condensed Mode

Epson LX-86TM User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Introduction

LX-86 Features

About This Manual

Printer Parts

Printer Location

Paper Feed Knob Installation

Ribbon Installation

Ribbon Replacement

Paper Loading

Control Panel

Lights

Buttons

Test Pattern

Connecting the LX-86 to Your Computer

First Printing Exercise

SelecType Operation

Turning SelecType on

Selecting typestyles

SelecType exercise

SelecType Tips

The Print Head

Bidirectional Printing

Changing Pitches

NLQ Mode

ASCII Codes

ESCape Code

Printer Codes

Embedded codes

Inserted codes

Programming Languages

Pica Printing

Changing Pitches

Cancelling Codes

Resetting the Printer

Pitch Comparison

Near Letter Quality Mode

Bold Modes

Emphasized mode

Master program

Double-strike

Double-width Mode

Mode Combinations

Italic Mode

Underline Mode

Master Select

Superscript and Subscript

Special Characters

Epson character graphics set

International characters

Graphics character set

Margins

Justification with NLQ

Skip Over Perforation

Line Spacing

Paper-Out Sensor

Defining Your Own Characters

Designing Process

First definition program

Running the program

Second definition program

Running the program

Defining NLQ Characters

NLQ grid

First NLQ definition program

Second NLQ definition program

Dot Patterns

Print Head

Graphics Mode

Pin Labels

First Graphics Program

Multiple-Line Exercise

Density Varieties

Reassigning Code

Column Reservation Numbers

WIDTH Statements

Design Your Own Graphics