Epson LX-90TM User Manual

0 (0)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Epson Corporation. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained herein. While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, Epson Corporation assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

Apple is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Applesoft is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. Centronics is a registered trademark of Data Computer Corporation. HomeWriter, LX-90, PIG and QX-16 are trademarks of Epson America, Inc. IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Microsoft is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation. QX-10 is a registered trademark of Epson America, Inc.

Nagano, Japan

Y497991200

Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Installation and Operation

Inserting the Printer Interface Cartridge Printing the Self Test Connecting the Printer to Your Computer

Control Panel

Using Your Printer

SelecType

SelecType Operation

Turning SelecType on Selecting typestyles

SelecType Exercise

Mode Combination

SelecType Tips

Elements of Dot-Matrix Printing and

Computer /Printer Communications

The Print Head Other Pitches NLQ Mode

ESCape and ASCII

.................................

.............................

....................................

.............................

............................

................................

...............................

.................................

...................................

............................

......................

...........................

........................

..........................

..............

...........

.........

3 3

5 6

9 10 11 13 14

15 15 16 17 18

PIC Features

Demonstration Programs Running BASIC Programs Pica Printing

Changing Pitches Cancelling Resetting the Printer Pitch Comparison Near Letter Quality Mode

Print Enhancements and

Special Characters

Emphasized Mode Double-Strike

..................................

Codes

.................................

.......................

......................

..............................

...........................

.............................

......................

.............................

19 19 20 21 21 22 22 23 23

25 25 26

111

ExpandedMode Mode Combinations Underline Mode Master Select

Superscript and Subscript International Characters Special Graphics Character Set

...............................

...........................

...............................

.................................

.......................

........................

..................

27 27 28 29 30 31 34

Page Formatting

Margins

Skip-Over-Perforation Line Spacing

Paper-OutSensor Justification with NLQ

User-Defined Characters

Defining Your Own Characters

Designing Process

Defining NLQ Characters

Introduction to Dot Graphics

Dot Patterns

The Print Head and Graphics

Graphics Mode

PinLabels..

First Graphics Program WIDTH Statements Multiple-Line Exercise

Density Varieties

Reassigning Code

Column Reservation Numbers

Designing Your Own Graphics

......................................

Definition program 1 Running the program Definition program Running the program

NLQgrid NLQ definition program 1 NLQ definition program

String variables

...............................

..................................

.............................

..................................

...............................

..................................

............................

..............................

.............................

..........................

.........................

........................

..................

.........................

........................

.........................

........................

.......................

....................

.........................

..........................

...................

37 37 38 38 39 39

41 41

44 45 46 47

47 48 50 51

53 54 54 55 56 57 58 58 60 61 61 62 65

Appendixes A LX-90 Characters

DraftMode ..................................

NLQMode ...................................

Software Commands in

Numerical Order . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Command Summary

Near Letter Quality Mode Character Width (Pitch) Print Enhancement PageFormatting..

Margins Line Spacing Form feed and page length

Tabs.. .....................................

Graphics User-Defined Characters Other Codes

D DIP Switches and Interface

DIP Switches Interface

.....................................

..............................

...........................

......................

........................

............................

.............................

....................................

................................

....................

........................

..................................

......................

.................................

A-l A-2 A-4

B-l

C-l

c-3 c-4 c-7

c-11 c-11

c-12 c-15 C-16 c-19 c-22

C-23

D-l D-l D-4

Troubleshooting and Advanced Features

Installation of Commercial Software Programs SelecType Features and Solutions

Reset codes

Cancelling modes Printing on Self-adhesive Labels Beeper Error Warnings Applesoft BASIC Solutions

QX-10 and QX-16 Solutions Graphics Data Dump Mode

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

.....................................

............................

.................................

............................

..................

.........................

.....................

.............................

...........

................

E-l E-l

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

E-4

E-4 E-4 E-5

Index-l

Introduction

The Epson LX-90™ printer with the PIC for parallel interface systems combines low price with the high quality and advanced capabilities formerly available only on more expensive printers.

The LX-90 User’s Manual tells you how to set up your printer. This

Printer Interface Cartridge Operation Manual gives you the specific

information you need to use the LX-90 with your computer.

This manual won’t waste your time with unnecessary information, but it also won’t neglect anything you need to know about the LX-90 and its features.

You can read as much or as little of this manual as you wish. The first chapter tells how to test the printer and connect it to your computer. The second chapter explains SelecType, a feature that offers you five special typefaces. The other chapters explain the main fea-

tures of the LX-90, and the appendixes give technical information on the printer.

Note

Although all references in this manual are to the Epson LX-90 printer, this PIC can also be used with the Epson HomeWriter™-10.

Chapter

Installation and Operation

After you have set up your printer and loaded the paper (following the directions in the LX-90 your Printer Interface Cartridge (PIG™) and begin printing.

Inserting the Printer Interface Cartridge

Inserting the PIC is easy. The cartridge slides into the rectangular opening, as shown in the LX-90 manual. Be sure the printer is OFF when you insert the PIC. The PIC has a grounding wire. Attach it as shown in Figure l-1.

User’s Manual),

you are ready to plug in

Figure 1-l. Attaching the grounding wire

Now that the PIC is installed, you need to change the settings of three small switches, called DIP switches, in the back of the printer, Figure 1-2 shows where the DIP switches are.

Figure l-2. DIP switch location

The functions of these switches are explained in detail in Appendix D, but all that you need to do now is turn three of them on. All the others should be off. (The switches are down when they are off and up when they are on.) Before you change any of the DIP switch settings make sure that the power switch on the right side of the printer is turned off.

The DIP switches are in two groups, with eight in the first group and four in the second. Turn on switches 6, 7, and 8 in the first group. Now you are ready to test your printer.

Printing the Self Test

It’s time to see the LX-90 in action. You’ll start with a self test. Don’t connect the printer to your computer yet-just follow these steps:

1. Make sure that your printer has paper in it and that the power

switch (on the right side of the printer) is off.

2. Hold down the LF button on the control panel while you turn the printer on with the power switch.

The LX-90 begins printing letters, numbers, and symbols in the draft mode. It won’t stop until you turn it off or until it gets near the end of the paper.

To see the same test in the NLQ (Near Letter Quality) mode, turn the printer on while pressing the FF button. Figure 1-3 shows partial results of both tests.

Draft

!“#$%!&’ ()*+,-.

! “#$%& ’ ()*+,-. /0123456789 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFEHIJ “#$%& ’ ( ) *+, --. /0123456789 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJK

#$%& ’ ( )*+f , -. /O123456789 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKL $%&'()*+,-.

%&'()*+,-.

NLQ

/0123456789 : ; <=>.. ?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMN

/0123456789 : ; <=>?@ABCDEFGHI

/0123456789: ; <

= >?@ABCDEFGHIJKLM

! “#$%&’ ( ) *+, -.

/0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHI !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJ "#$%&' ( ) *+, -.

/0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJK #$%&'()a+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKL $%&' ()*+, -.

%&' ()*+, -.

Connecting the Printer to Your Computer

Now that the self test 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.

Because different computers require different printer connections, you need a separate cable to connect the PIC cable to your computer. Connect the separate cable to the plug on the end of the PIC cable and

then plug the other end into your computer. Your computer manual or

your dealer will tell you what you need.

/0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLM

Figure 1-3. Self-test printouts

Control Panel

After connecting your LX-90 to your computer, turn on the printer

and look at the control panel, which is shown in Figure

Figure 7-4. Control panel

You have already used the control panel for a special purpose, printing the self test. Here are the main functions of the lights and buttons on this panel:

l-4.

The POWER light glows green when the power is on.

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

data. Don’t worry if this light flickers somewhat during printing; this flickering is normal.

The PAPER OUT light glows red when the printer is out of paper or the paper is loaded incorrectly.

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

In addition to the lights, the control panel has three buttons.

ON LINE-switches the printer between 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.

The other two buttons, FF and LF, work only when the printer is off

line (when the ON LINE light is off). If the ON LINE light is on, press the ON LINE button before you use these.

FF (Form Feed)-advances continuous paper to the top of the next

page or ejects a single sheet of paper.

LF (Line Feed)-advances the paper one line at a time.

The control panel can also be used to turn on several printing func-

tions using SelecType, a feature which is described in the next chapter.

Using Your Printer

If you have a word processing or other commercial software program, just load the program into your computer, follow the printing instructions, and watch your LX-90 print.

If your software program requires you to specify which printer you are using, see Appendix E for instructions.

If you plan to use your LX-90 for printing program listings, load a program and use the appropriate listing command for the programming language you are using.

You can now begin using the LX-90 with your software, or you can find out about the special features of the printer in the next chapters. You may be especially interested in SelecType, the feature described in Chapter 2, which you can use with nearly all software.

Chapter 2

SelecType

The LX-90 enables you to use a feature called SelecType to produce

five special typestyles:

Typewriter-style Near Letter Quality,

Emphasized bold printing,

Double-strike bold printing,

Conpressed narrow

or Elite printing.

Choosing typestyles with SelecType is simple. A few taps on the printer’s control panel tells the printer which style you want, and SelecType lets you choose the typestyle each time you print. For example, you can print the first draft of a letter or report in the standard mode and the final version in the NLQ mode.

SelecType Operation

Using SelecType is simple. You turn on SelecType and select a typestyle, then turn off SelecType and print.

printing,

Turning SelecType on

1. Make sure that the printer is on and that the POWER, READY, and

ON LINE lights are all on.

Press both the trated in Figure

ON LINE

2-1.

and FF buttons

at the

same

time,

as illus-

Figure 2-1. Turning SelecType on

When you press the ON LINE and FF buttons, the LX-90 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:

ON LINE

FF sets the styles.

LF turns SelecType off.

selects

typestyles.

After turning on SelecType, follow these three steps to select a

typestyle:

1. Find the typestyle you want in Table

2-l.

Table 2-1. SelecType modes

Mode

3 4

5 Elite

NLQ Emphasized Double-strike Compressed

ABCDEFGHJIJKLMNopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvxyz

ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxzyz ABCDEFGHIJKLMnopqrstuvwxyz

Typestyle

2. Press the ON LINE button the number of times indicated in the mode column. Be sure that the printer beeps

each

time you press

the ON LINE button.

3. Press the FF button to set the typestyle.

4. Press the LF button to turn SelecType off. The control panel

returns to its normal functions, but

the

printer is off line.

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

SelecType Exercise

You will probably use SelecType mainly with commercial software, but since there are so many different commercial software programs, the sample exercises are in Microsoft widely used BASIC in personal computers. Consequently, most users can enter and run the programs exactly as the programs appear in

these pages.

BASIC (MBASIC), the most

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. Then type the short program listed below. Only the words inside

the

quotation marks are printed. You can put

anything you want there.

18 LPRINT "This is an example of"

28 LPRINT "LX-90 printing."

Now, run the program by typing RUN and pressing

RETURN,

print your file or document by following the printing instructions of

your software. The LX-90 will print your example in standard singlestrike printing, as shown below:

This is an example of LX-90 printing.

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

emphasized mode:

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

2. Press the ON LINE and FF buttons at the same time. You hear a beep to signal that SelecType is on.

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

4. Now that you have

selected

the emphasized mode, push the FF

button once to set it.

5. Push the LF button once to return the panel to its standard opera-

tion.

6. Press the ON LINE button so the LX-90 is ready to print. Now you have set the LX-90 to print in emphasized mode. Print

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

This is an example of LX-90 printing.

Turn off your printer to cancel the emphasized setting, and-if you

wish-try this exercise with other modes. If you are using commercial software and SelecType will not change the typestyle, see “SelecType Features” in Appendix E.

Mode Combination

Two of the SelecType modes (NLQ and emphasized) can be com-

bined to create an impressive effect. If you want to see this combina-

tion, turn your printer off and back on and follow the instructions

below :

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

2. Press the ON LINE and FF buttons at the same time.

3. Press the ON LINE button once and then the FF button once. Since one is the code for NLQ, you have now set the LX-90 for NLQ.

4. Press the ON LINE button one more time and then the FF button once again.

This makes a total of two times, and thus sets the LX-90 for emphasized also.

5. Press the LF button to return the panel to its standard operation.

6. Press the ON LINE button to put the LX-90 on line.

Now print your sample document or run your sample program. If

your printing appears in

emphasiaed Near Letter Quality

as you see here, you have successfully combined the two modes. If you get any other results, turn your printer off and back on and then try the steps again.

You can combine other modes using the same technique, but some modes will not mix with others. Table 2-2 shows which modes can be combined. A dot in a box indicates that the two modes can be combined.

Table

2-2.

Mode combinations

Mode

NLQ Emphasized Double-strike

Compressed

Elite

Don’t worry about harming your printer if you try to combine two modes that the LX-90 can’t mix. Your settings cannot damage the printer because it is prepared for the possibility of receiving codes for conflicting modes. If it receives codes for two modes that it can’t combine, it uses only one of the codes.

NLQ

Emphasized

•

Double- Compressed

strike

•

Elite

•

SelecType Tips

After you turn on a mode with SelecType, it usually 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.

If you like NLQ or compressed well enough to use it most of the

time, you can turn it on and keep it on with a special switch in the

back of your printer. See Appendix D for instructions.

For more information on the typestyles in this chapter, see Chapters

3, 4, and 5.

Chapter 3

Elements of Dot-Matrix Printing

and Computer/Printer Communications

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, particularly the ones on user-defined characters and graphics.

The Print Head

The LX-90 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 (shown in Figure 3-l), 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 pin and the six below it at the same time, 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. All this happens in only l/lOOth of a second.

Figure 3-1. A capital T

Other Pitches

In addition to pica, in which there are LX-90 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 slightly more than

characters per inch. The pattern of the dots is not changed, but the horizontal space between them is reduced.

Figure 3-2 shows enlargements of four sample letters in each of the three pitches. These letters are chosen to show how the LX-90 prints letters that are uppercase and lowercase, wide and narrow, and with and without descenders (the bottom dots of the j and y).

This is pica.

This is elite.

characters per inch, the

This is compressed.

Figure 3-2. The three pitches

the LX-90

The dot pattern of each character is carefully designed so that in pica no dot overlaps another. The reason is that in normal high-speed printing the pins cannot fire and retract and fire again quickly enough to print one dot overlapping another.

NLQ Mode

The preceding examples are in the I-X-90’s draft mode, but the LX-90 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, as you can see below. Figure with the same two in the NLQ mode.

3-3

shows enlargements of two letters in draft mode compared

Figure 3-3. Near Letter Quality and draft characters compared

With the two modes, draft and NLQ, the LX-90 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.

SelecType makes it especially easy to change from draft to NLQ, but you can also select and cancel the NLQ mode with a software command or with a DIP switch in the back of your printer. You can find the software command in Chapter 4 and the operation of the switch in Appendix D.

ESCape and ASCII

The details of printer-computer communication are complex, but for most purposes all you need to know is that the computer sends a series of codes (each consisting of one or more numbers) to the printer, and the printer interprets them.

Some codes tell the printer to print a character, and other codes tell

it to turn on or off certain printer functions, such as emphasized or Near Letter Quality. Because the codes between 0 and cally standardized by the American Standard Code for Information

Interchange (ASCII) they are referred to as ASCII numbers in this manual.

Nearly all of the codes for printer functions require more than one number and begin with a special code, called the escape code. This code signals that the next number is a code for a printer function and its name is usually printed with the first three letters capitalized (Escape) or it is abbreviated ESC or (ESC) .

In the demonstration programs in this manual, you’ll see how ASCII and ESCape codes are used in the Microsoft BASIC programming language.

The CHR$ (character string) function is used for numerical codes.

127

are basi-

CHR$(27) is the ESCape code.

Quotation marks are used for printable characters, such as letters of

the alphabet.

LPRINT sends text or commands to the printer.

Your word processing or business program may use other methods to send those codes, such as pressing the

key for the ESCape code. See your software manual for further information and use Appendixes B and C of this manual to find the proper codes. Appendix E also has some suggestions on using LX-90 features with applications software.

Chapter 4

PIC Features

The next four chapters describe many of the printing features of the PIC. You can read these chapters if you wish, but you may not need to. Whether or not you use the rest of this manual depends upon your expertise, your interest, and the software you plan to use.

Demonstration Programs

Along with a discussion and examples of the PIC features, these chapters include demonstrations in the BASIC programming language so that you can see these features in action. Although you will probably not do much of your printing using BASIC, the demonstrations are in BASIC because it comes with most computers.

You don’t need to know anything about BASIC to type in and run these programs. All the instructions you need are on the next page.

As you run the programs (or even as you read the explanations and look at the printed examples), you learn how the LX-90 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, such as a Greek letter, 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 BASIC, you don’t have to. In most cases the software that you use for word processing, business, or graphics does the calculating and communicating with the

printer for you and all you have to know about the printer is how to turn it on and how to load paper. If you need help with the installation program for your software, see Appendix E.

Running BASIC Programs

This section describes how to run the BASIC demonstration pro-

grams in this manual; it is not a tutorial in BASIC programming.

Although there are many versions of BASIC, the programs in this manual are designed to work with the two most popular ones: Microsoft BASIC and IBM@ PC BASIC. If you have another version, you can run these demonstration programs by making a few changes. Appendix D has instructions for using Applesoft’” BASIC; for other versions of BASIC, consult the appropriate manual.

When you type these programs, be sure to include all spaces and punctuation marks, especially semicolons. Press

of each line. (On your computer the

or ENTER.) Computers that use a 40-column display may

break some lines into two parts on the screen, but that does not affect

the operation of the program. If you make a typing mistake, retype the whole line, including the line number; the new line will replace the old one.

RETURN

key may be marked

at the end

When you have typed all the lines, type RUN and press

to run the program.

If you have made changes to a program and want to see all of it on the screen, type LIST and then press your screen. When you are completely through with one program and want to start another, type NEW and press

In Chapter 3 you saw the enlargements of the three LX-90 pitches. Now you’ll learn how to produce them.

RETURN

RETURN.

to see the program on

RETURN

Pica Printing

The first exercise is a simple three-line program to print a sample

line of characters in pica, the standard pitch. Enter this program:

FOR X=65 TO

50 LPRINT 60 NEXT

CHR$(X);

X: LPRINT: LPRINT

105

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

pica characters per inch.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ-`abcdefghi

Changing Pitches

Now you can try other pitches. As explained in Chapter

LX-90

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

there are “M” command and prints in compressed when it receives the ASCII command. Print a sample line of elite characters by adding the line

below to your previous program. (Simply type this line and press

RETURN;

uses the same pattern of dots for pica, elite, and compressed

In elite mode there are

17.16.

The

LX-90

you do not need to retype the other lines.)

characters per inch, and in compressed

prints in elite when it receives the ESCape

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";

This line uses the command for elite, ESCape ‘M”, to turn on that mode. When you run the program, your printout should look like the one below.

the

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`abcdefghi

The next addition to the program cancels elite with ESCape "P" and turns on compressed with ASCII

LPRINT CHR$(27);"P";CHR$(15);

15:

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

Cancelling Codes

As you saw in the third version of the print pitch program, you must cancel a code when you don’t want it any more. With very few exceptions, the LX-90 modes stay on until they are cancelled. It is important to remember this because an LX-90 mode can stay if you change from BASIC to another type of software. For example, if you run the program above and print a memo with a word processing program afterward, the memo is printed in compressed because the printer is still in compressed mode. To cancel compressed, use ASCII 18. In BASIC, you use this format:

LPRINT CHR$(18)

To avoid having one program interfere with the printing modes of

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

With a specific cancelling code, such as the ESCape "I" used above

to cancel elite and the ASCII 18 to cancel compressed. 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 or compressed.

on even

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

Resetting the Printer

Resetting your LX-90 cancels all modes that are turned on. You can

reset the printer with one of two methods:

Sending the reset code (Escape “@“)

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 singlestrike pica, thus cancelling any other pitches or enhancements

you may have turned on, and the current position of the print head becomes the top-of-page setting.

Some of the demonstration programs end with a reset code

(Escape “a”) 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 three main pitches, you can choose the one that best fits a particular printing job. Most people use either pica or elite for printing text and compressed 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 132 characters per line that compressed gives you, you can combine elite and compressed for a mode called compressed elite. It is not really another pitch, because the size of the characters is the same as in the compressed mode; only the space which allows 160 characters to fit on a line, if you replace line 30 in your last program to produce the following program:

between

the characters is reduced. You can see this mode,

the

pitch

that

you prefer or

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";

LPRINT CHR$(15);

FOR X=65 TO 105 50 LPRINT CHR$(X); 60 NEXT X: LPRINT

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

turn off elite, giving you the printout below:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`abcdefghi

Near Letter Quality Mode

The examples so far in this chapter are in the draft mode, but you can also use a software command to turn on the NLQ mode, which you turned on with SelecType in Chapter 2.

Enter and run the following program to see how the NLQ mode is

turned on by an ESCape sequence:

NEW

10 LPRINT CHR$(27); "x"; CHR$(l);

FOR X=65 TO 105

LPRINT CHR$(X);

NEXT X: LPRINT

ABCDEFGHINKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]ˆ_`abcdefghi

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 compressed.

All the modes demonstrated in this chapter are compared in Table

4-l.

Table 4-1. Summary of LX-90 pitches

Print sample CPI

<- inch ->

Near Letter Quality

Pica print.

Elite print Compressed print Compressed elite print

10.00

12.00

17.16 15

20.00

ESC “x” 1

ESC “M”

ESC “M” 15 ESC “P” 18

codes

Off

ESC “x" 0

ESC “ P” 18

Remember that you don’t have to use BASIC to change modes; you can use any method or software that sends the proper codes to the printer.

Chapter 5

Print Enhancements and

Special Characters

Besides the pitches (pica, elite, and compressed) covered in Chap-

ters 3 and 4, the LX-90 offers many other typestyles.

Emphasized Mode

In the emphasized mode the LX-90 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. This method produces better-looking, more fully formed characters that are darker than single-strike characters.

To see an example of emphasized, type and run the following program. (See “Running BASIC Programs” in Chapter 4 if necessary.)

NEW

10 LPRINT "This is standard printing." 20 LPRINT CHR$(27); "E"; 30 LPRINT "This is emphasized printing." 100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"@"

This is

This is emphasized printing.

standard printing.

Emphasized works only in draft pica and NLQ modes. In elite and compressed the dots are already so close together that even with the reduced print speed, the LX-90 cannot fire, retract, and again fire the pins quickly enough to print overlapping dots.

You do sacrifice some print speed with emphasized, because the print head slows down to print 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. The code to turn off emphasized is ESCape “F”.

Double-Strike

Another bold mode is double-strike. For this mode the LX-90 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 if you run this program, which uses ESCape “G” to turn on double-strike.

10 LPRINT "This is standard printing." 20 LPRINT CHR$(27); "G";

LPRINT "This is double-strike printing."

100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"@"

This is standard printing. This is double-strike printing.

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 to turn off double-strike is ESCape “H”.

Some users prefer the effect of emphasized, and others prefer double-strike. You can look at the printout below and decide for yourself.

This is standard printing,

this is emphasized printing, and

this is double-strike printing.

Expanded Mode

Perhaps the most dramatic mode on the LX-90 is expanded. It produces extra-wide characters that are good for titles and headings. For this mode, the dot pattern of each character is expanded and twice as many dots are printed. You can see the difference between pica and expanded pica if you enter and run this program:

10 LPRINT "This is standard printing."

29 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; "W1";

LPRINT "This is expanded."

100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"@"

This is standard printing.

This

For this mode the letter W and the numeral one together turn the mode on and the letter W and the numeral zero together turn it off. Thus ESCape "Wl" turns on expanded and ESCape "WO" turns it off.

Those of you who are programmers may be interested in another

form of expanded. In this alternate form, called one-line expanded,

the printing is the same as that in the example but it is turned on by

ASCII 14 and is turned off by a line feed, ASCII 20, or ESCape "WO".

expanded

Mode Combinations

You can also use control codes to combine modes. For example, you can make a title especially vivid by combining emphasized and expanded. In fact, you can combine nearly all of the print modes on

the LX-90; your LX-90 printer can print such complicated combinations as double-strike emphasized expanded underlined subscript, although you may never want such a combination. The point is, however, that the LX-90 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 emphasized combined with expanded, change two lines in your previous program:

20 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; "Wl" ; CHR$ (27) ; "E";

LPRINT "Emphasized expanded"

+ 92 hidden pages