Star Micronics 8 Series, LaserPrinter 8 Series Applications Manual

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L 8

Series

A M

Series

Applications Manual

Trademark Acknowledgements

LaserPrinter 8: StarMicronicsCo., Ltd. PageMaker: Aldus CqSOraticsr Apple II +, Applesoft: Apple ComputerInc. BitStream,~apf Humanist: BitstreamInc. Canon: CanonInc. Centronics: CentronicsData Computer Corporation HP, LaserJet Series H: Hewlett-PackardCompany LaserControl: InsightDevelopmentfrrc. IBM PC, IBM Proprinter: InternationalBusinessMachinesCorp. Optim~ Century Schoolbook: LinotypeCorporation Lotus 1-2-3: Lotus Development Corporation MS-DOS, Microsoft BASIC, Windows, Word, Microsoft BASIC: Microsoft Corporation MultiMate: Muhrrratefntemational TRS-80: RadioShack, a division of TandyCorporation

Epson, EX-800: Seiko EpsursCorporation

WordPerfect: WordPerfect Corporation Ventura Publisher, Hyplot, Diablo 630: XeroxCorporatimr

NOTICE

. Alf rights reserwed.Reproduction of any part of this manual in any form whatsoever without

STAR’s express permission is forbidden. . The contents of this manual are subject to change without notice. . AUeffons have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this manual at the time of

press. However, sbould any errors be detected, STAR woufd greatly appreciate being informed

of them. . The above rrotwithstarrding,STAR can assume no responsibility for any errors in this manual.

PREFACE

About this manual

ThisSrar LuserPrinter8ApplicationsManual givesyouthe information

youneed toprogramtheStarMicronicsLaserPrinter8.

Whywouldyoureadthisbook? Mostpeopleusingalaserprinterjust run

softwarepackageswithbuilt-inprinterdrivers,whichlookaftereverything

theircomputerssendtheirprinters.Butmanyofus-small businesspeople

and home computerusers, not to mentionthe wizardswho write those

softwarepackages—wanttobenefitfromallthenewfeaturesofferedbyour

printers.

Doyouwantcompletecontroloverthecharactersandimagesyoupnnt? Do

youwantto makeyourStarLaserPrinter8 worklikesomeearlierkindof

printer? Thismanual providesthesoftwarehelpyouneedto getthemost

fromyourLaserPrinter8.

ThoughthisApplicationsManual is really intendedfor intermediateto

advancedcomputerusers,we’vetriedtoaccommodaterelativenovicestoo.

The informationis organizedso youcan walkthroughthegeneraltheory underlyingprinterprogrammingbeforedancinginto specificdetails. It makessense,therefore,to readthefirstthreechaptetxbeforejumpinginto themiddle.

There’sagood reasontoreadeachchapterfromitsstarttoo.Peoplelearning howtouseanewprinteroftenfindtheterminologyabarrier. Soinsteadof buryingwhatmaybencwjargonin aGlossaryattheback,we defineeach newtermthefirsttimeitappears.Thewholefirstpartofthechapteronfonts, forexample,definesdifferentaspectsofafont (acollectionofcharactersof thesamesizeandstyle).

What’s in this manual?

In “Gettingto KnowYourStarLaserPrinter8“we provide a list of the featuresthat make this a splendidprinter,to help you choosewhich featuresyou wantto exploit. There’sa bit onhowlaserprinterswork, insideandout. Thechapterthenexplainssoftwareingeneralterms,including how to write control and Escape commandsto make those featureswork.

“ControllingYour Printer” examines the parameters and “superset”

commandsyougivetheStarLaserPrinter8to direct preciselyhowyou wantittobehave.Theselet youcontrolthe printer,managepageformats, andspecifywhatyouwantprinted.

Formostofus, the“Fonts”chapterwillbeuseful: howtousethefonts built i_ntothe LaserPrinter8, plus those that come on cartridgesor computerdisks.

Youmay neverlookat more thanoneor two of chapters 4 through7, which cover Star LaserPrinter8 commands. Your LaserPrinter8 emulatesotherprintem:itimitatesotherpnntembyacceptingthesame commandstheydo. JustthinkofyourStarLaserPrinter8 asfourprinters hidinginsideoneunit.

Ifyou wanttowriteormodifyaprogramthatusesoneoftheseprinters— theHewlett-PackardLaserJetseriesII,EpsonEX-800,IBM Proprinteror

XeroxDiablo630- chapters4 through7 showhow yourStarLaserPrinter8 canemulateto accordingly.Thechaptersfirstdescribehowto controltheprinter andto formatpages, thenhowto move theprintposition,and finallyhowto usefontsandgraphics.

ThechapterontheLaserJetseries11islongerandmoredetailedthanthe others.That’s becauseyouaremorelikelytouselaserprintercommands than commandsfor dot matrix or daisywheelprinters. (If you have softwaredesignedonly fordotmatrixor daisywheelprinters,youmay have manualsfor those printers anyway.) We recommendyou use LaserJetseriesII emulationwheneverpossible,withEX-800emulation as yourbackupmode.

● Thefinal“TechnicalSupplement”containingthecommandandcharac-

ter referencetableswillprobablygetthumbedthemost.

Conventions

Incidentally,oneofthoseTechnicalSupplementtablessuggestsacoupleof typographicconventionswe’lluse.Baseten(decimal)numberswillgenerallybe usedhere;if wehaveto use basesixteennumbers (hexadecimal) we’llexpresslysayso.

Andsecond,thelowercaseLispracticallyidenticaltothenumberone(1vcrsus 1). BecauselowercaseL isusedinmanycommanddescriptions,we’ll usethecharactert’toavoidconfusion.

The Star LaserPrinter 8 Operations Manual

Thismanualis thecompaniontotheStarLaserPrinter8OperationsManual thatcamewithyour printer. Alaserprinterisa fairlycomplextoolthatrequirescareanddelicatehandling. SotousethisApplicationsManual best, makesureyouunderstandthatOperationsManual first.

Your OperationsManual holds essentialinformationaboutthe Lascr-

Pnnter,8,suchashowto:

● unpackandsetup yourlaserprinter,

● connecttheStarLaserPrinter8 toyourcomputer’sserialorparallelport,

● iinktheLaserPrinter8intoa networkof severalcomputers,

● configuretheLaserPrinter8to yourneeds (wilhvanablcssuchaspaper

sizeand speedofdatatransfer),

● loadpaperandthetonercartridge,

● operate the panelswitchesanddisplay,

● runthe LaserPrinter8 self-test,

● lookafteryourprintertokeepit in peakcondition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW YOUR STAR

LASERPRINTER 8

Star

LaserPrinter8Hardware..... ............................................................1

StarLaserPrinter8Software..... .............................................................5

CHAPTER 2 CONTROLLING YOUR PRINTER

PrinterParameters...... ................................. .........................................13

Controllingthe Printer..........................................................................16

ControllingthePage........ .....................................................................21

Controllingthe Printing........................................................................28

TheStarLaserPrinter8 Superset.........................................................29

CHAPTER 3 FONTS

FontTerminology..... ......................................... ...................................35

HowtheStarLaserPrinter8 StoresFonts..... .......................................38

SymbolSets..........................................................................................41

ManagingFonts.......... ..........................................................................44

CHAPTER4 HPLASERJETII COMMANDS

HPLaserJetIICommands........ ............................................................51

ControllingthePrinter............ ..............................................................53

PageOrientation..... ..............................................................................56

MovingthePrintPosition..... ........................................................,.......61

ControllingFonts..... .............................................................................70

UsingYourOwnFonts...........:......,...... ................................................85

Graphics....................................... .........................................................89

Macros..................................................................................................94

CHAPTER 5 EPSON EX-800 COMMANDS

EX-800Commands...... ........................................................................99

Controllingthe Printer......................... ...............................................101

FormattingPages........ ........................................................................102

MovingthePrintPosition............. ........... ..........................................105

ControllingFonts.......... ......................................................................110

Graphics.............................................................................................119

CHAPTER 6 IBM PROPRINTER COMMANDS

125

ProprinterCommands..... ....................................................................125

ControllingthePrinter... .....................................................................126

FormattingPages........ ........................................................................127

MovingthePrintPosition...... .............................................................127

ControllingFonts................................................................................13(J

Graphics..............................................................................................133

CHAPTER 7 XEROX DIABLO630COMMANDS

135

DiabloCommands..............................................................................135

ControllingthePrinter... .....................................................................136

FormattingPages..................................... ...........................................137

MovingthePrintPosition..... ..............................................................140

ControllingFonts................................................................................145

Graphics

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

l~g

CHAPTER 8 TECHNICAL SUPPLEMENT

153

Commandsummary...........................................................................154

Symbolsets

.................................... ....................................................162

INDEX

213

ThischapterintroducesboththehardwareandsoftwareaspectsoftheStar LaserPrinter8’s personality,from fonts and print engineto ASCII and Escapesequences.

STAR LASERPRINTER 8 HARDWARE

Versatility

YourStarMicronicsStarLaserPrinter8workswithpracticallyallcommcrcialsoftwareprogramsandcomputers.WithfeaturesthatgobeyondStar’s easy,affordable9-pinandfast,quality-printing24-pindotmatrixprinters, the Star Laser Printer is the logicalnext step in the series of fine Star Micronicsprinters.

Your Star LaserPrinter 8 produces pages that look close to typeset quality, with up to 90,000 dots per square inch— no more NLQ (near letter quality) compromises.

The Star LaserPrinter8 produceseight of those pages a minute,These numberstranslateto aboutfivetimesmore resolutionand speedthantheaveragedot-matrixprinter.

Star’snewprinterisremarkablyversatile.Youcanprintcomplicatedforms (widthwiseif you want)... detailedgraphs... yourown customizedtypestyles... digitizedphotographs... other languages(includingArabicand Japanese).

Youcan evenprintyourletterheadandlogo as you printyourletter,and reprintthem directlyonto a businessenvelope.You don’t even need to removethepapertraytoprinttheenvelope:justslideitintothemanualfeed slot.

TheStarLaserPrinter8isidealfordesktoppublishing.The pagesitproduces makeperfectphotocopyorinstant-printmasters.Andallthemaindesktop publishingsystems,includingAldusCorporation’sPageMakerandXerox VenturaPubisher,worksplendidlywiththeStarLaserPrinter8.With’’page makeup”programslikethese youwillbeable—maybeforthefirsttime— to deliver communicationswiththe impact of top-notchgraphics.

Font options

Youcan print withanamazinglywidevarietyoftypefontsandsizes.The StarLaserPrinter8comeswithfourbuilt-infonts,whichcanbeprintedfrom

8.5pointsto 12pointsin size(apointis about1/72of an inch). Thesefontsarc:

Courier

Prestige Elite

Tms Romn

Lino Pr i ntar

Besidesfiese, youmaybe abletouseoptionalcartridgesanddiskstogive yourStarL&serPnnter8 a varietyof extrafonts,suchasthese:

Helvet

linedrawing LetterGothic presentationfonts Bar codes opticalcharacterreaderfontsuniversalproductcode

You can load your Star LaserPrinter8’smemory with fonts stored on computerdisks. Literallyhundredsof fonts are marketedby font-supply companies.Some fontsare evenobtainablefromcomputer“usergroups”or “electronicbulletinboards”.Fontsyougetthiswayareinthepublicdomain, whichmeansyoudon’t needto pay alicencefeetousethem.

Ask your Star LaserPrinter8 dealer aboutresourceslike these. Desktop publishingwith laser printers is fast-changingterritory,and some Star Micronicsstaffpeoplehavefoundelectronicbulletinboardsandcomputer usergroupsquitehelpfulinkeepingupwiththechangingpace.Ifyouinvest a littletimethiswayit mayrepayyou’well.

How your Iaserprinter communicates

YourcomputercommunicateswiththeStarLaserPrinter8througheithera

parallelcableor oneof twokindsof serialcable.Theprinter’sinterj2ace,

the link or boundaryit shares with your computer,defineswhetherthe

printerwillacceptcharactersandcommandsfromyourcomputeronebyte

or onebitat a time. Abitisthesmallestunitofcomputerorprintermemory.Ithaseitheralow

orhighelectriccharge,whichwerepresentwiththedigitsOand1.Usually eight adjacentbits are groupedto form a byte. Since a byte normally representsonecharacter,thisstringofbits- O1OOOOO—mightrepresent theletter A.

The serialinterfaceacceptsjust onebit at a time fromyourcomputer.A parallelinterfacecanhandleawholebyteatonce,bymovingdatabitssideby-sidealongseparatewires.Youchoosewhichinterfacemethodyou want to use by selectingit on the operatorpanel, as explainedin your Star

LaserPrinter8 OperationsManual.

The Star LaserPrinter 8 is a computer

TheStarLaserPrinter8firstmapsthecharactersto beprintedintoitsown randomaccessmemory(RAM).Thatis,theprinterbuildsa“picture”inits

memorycorrespondingtothepageyouwanttoprint.Whenthat’sdonethe pnntercanreproducethe pageontopaperonits own,lettingyourcomputer geton’withotherwork.

YourStar LaserPrinter8comeswithonemegabyteofRAM—theequiva- lentof aboutonemillioncharacters.AStarLaserPrinter8 optionletsyou addasecondmegabyteofRAMif,say,youneedtomapfull-pagegraphics orstoremorefonts. AccompanyingallthatRAMisanother512kilobytes ofreadonlymemory(ROM),containingalibraryofinternalfontsandthe programsthatlettheStarLaserPrinter8 emulateotherprinters.

AMotorola68000computerchipcontrolsboththe memoryandthe printing mechanismintheprinter,calledtheprintengine. Theprintcrstoresawhole pagein RAM beforeprintingit. (If a page is so densethat it overflows memory-a mostunlikelyevent—theStarLaserPrinter8printsthepageon two sheets.)

The Print engine

It’s tie print enginethat forms the actualcharactersand graphics.The

enginedirectsitslaser,apinpointstreamoflightpulses,throughmirrorsand

lensesontothe surface of a positively-chargedrotatingdrum.

r“’””’

Lens Laser beam

Scanning mirror

uctor laser diode

Photosensitive drum

Asthelaserscans,it“draws”thepage-mapstoredinyourprinter’smemory. Whereveralightpulsestrikes,thattinypartof thedrumdropsto aneutral electricalcharge.That spot then attractsfine toner powder as the drum rotatespastthepowdercompartment.

Asthedrumrotatesfurtheritmeetsthepaper.The paperitselfisnegatively chargedbypassing by afine coronawire.Sinceoppositechargesattract,the negativepaperclings to thepositivedrum. Then heatandpressurefroma rollermeltorjkre thedotsoftonerontothepaper,preciselyreproducingthe image.

Finallythepaperslidesintotheoutputbin.Thepaperusuallycomesoutface downso it stacksin the correct sequence.

STAR LASERPRINTER 8 SOFTWARE

Binary and hexadecimal arithmetic

If you alreadyknow what hexadecimalnumbersare, you can skip this sectionandgoaheadto readaboutASCII.

The decimalnumbersystemwith whichwe’reall familiaris a positional counting system. There’s the

“ones” position,the “tens” position,the

“hundreds”positionandsoon.Eachhigherpositionis worthtcntimesmore

thanthepositiontotherightofit,sincethedecimalsystemusesthebaseof ten.Moreover,weneedtensymbolsto showtheactualvaluesthatmaybe in eachposition.

Thebinary systemispositionaltoo.There’sthe“ones”position,the“twos” position,the“fours”position,the “eights”positionandsoon.Inbinaryeach positionisworthonlytwicethatofthepositiontoitsright.Andweonlyneed twosymbols-O (zero)and1(one)-to showthevaluesthatmaybeinany position.So inbinarywe getnumbersthatlooklike 1010or 10001100.

Thehexadecimalsystemismadeofbase-sixteennumbers.Hexadecimalis positionalliketheothercountingsystems.Andeachhigherpositionisworth sixteentimesasmuchasthepositionto itsright.

We need sixteendifferentsymbolsto show all the possiblevaluesone hexadecimaldigit could have. We can use our decimal system’s ten

symbols,butwe’vehadtoborrowa fewmorefromouralphabettoget all thesymbolsweneed.Inhexadecimal,therefore,you canhaveanumberthat lookslike2C7C, or evenFACE.

Here’showthe decimal,binaryandhexadecimalnumbersystemscompare:

Decimal

2 3 4

Binary

Ooo1 0010 0011 0100 0101 0110 0111

Hexadecimal

2 3 4 5 6 7

Decimal

9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Binary

1(W3

1001

1010 1o11 1100 1101 1110 1111

Hexadecimal

8 9

A B c D E

Theimportantthingtorealizeisthatthere’smorethanonewaytoshowthe samenumericvalue.Computerprogrammers,forexample,occasionallyuse thehexadecimalsystembecauseit’sso compact.(Programmersoftenjust say“hex”.)Thisbinarynumber:

101001011111110100110111111011010010110100001001

looksquiteabit tidierwhenitiswrittenasA5FD37ED2D09,whichmeans thesamething.

TheASCII table

Wheredoes the Star LaserPrinter8 get the charactersand instructionsit needsto printin the firstplace?It gets themfromyourcomputer,which sendsa streamof textandcommandsto yourprinter.

Theprogramin yourcomputerthatcontrolseverythingsentto the printer (calledthe printer driver)will usuallybe includedwith your computer programsrsuchasyourwordprocessor.Butthecommandscouldalsocome fromaprogramyou’vewritten,perhapsinBASIC,aprogramminglanguage thatusescommonEnglishwords.

Internally,computemandprintersuse only the binarynumbersystemto representboth commandsand all the alphabetic,numericandother keyboardsymbols.Nearlyallofthosemachinesusethesameschemeto code thosesymbols,theAmericanStandardsCodefor InformationInterchange (ASCII). ‘

Anexample:inourfamiliardecimalsystem,binary01001010addsuptothe number 74. Dependingon which program your printer is using, it can interpretthatbinarystring01001010aseitherthenumber74orthesymbol J. The printerstoresthesymbolJ at position74in a tablein its memory.

Thateight-bitbinarystring,orbyte,canbebrokenintotwohalves.Theleft orhigh-orderpartcontaining0100iscalledthezoneportion;therightpart holdingthe1010iscalledthedigitspdion. Andinthehexadecimalnumber system,the zoneand digitparts of that byte are representedas 4 and A respectively(lookthemup in thelistabove).

SothelaserprinterunderstandsthesymbolJ as 01001010,whichwecan alsorepresentas the decimalnumber74 or the hexadecimalnumber4A. We’veprintedthisbyteverticallyandhorizontallybelow,showinghowit addsup todecimal74 andhex4A.

o x 27

1x 26

0x25 0x 24

x 22

1x 2’

ox 2°

zone

0100

= 64 =

=0 =

74 Decimal

digits

1010 Binary

Hexadecimal

The ASCIItablein theTechnicalSupplementshows all theseequivalent

representationsfor the symbolsyourlaser printerunderstands.The table organizesthem in ascendingorder.Infact,ASCIIisorganizedinawaythat ac@allymakessense.

Flipbacktherefor aquicklookrightnow.Seehowyoucan slicethetable into clumpsof 16 or 32, basedon what’s in the zone portionunderthe hexadecimalcolumn?Theseclumpsmakesubgroupsof similarsymbols:

● hex00 to IF arethecommandsymbolscalledcontrolcodes,

● hex 20to 40 arcthecommonkeyboardsymbolsandnumerals,

● hex41 to 60 arecapitallettersandthelesscommonkeyboardsymbols,

● hex’61to 7F arelowercaselettersanda fewfinalsymbols.

That takes care of the first 128ASCII symbols.However,nearly every co’mputerand printer manufacturertreats the second half of the table differently. Hewlett-Packard,for example, puts a variety of accented foreignlanguagecharactersintopositions128-255(oftenreferredtoashigh ASCII). Epson gives you a choice of either italics charactersor IBM charactergraphics.

Control codes

TheASCIItableshowssymbolslikeJor2 thewaytheyactuallyprintonthe laserprinter.ButASCIIincludesmorethanjust printablecharacters:none of thecontrolcodecommandsatthebeginningof thetableactuallyprint. Instead,when your computersendsa controlcode to the laser printer it makesyourprinterdootherthings,suchas sounditsbccpcr.

Controlcodesmostlyhandlecommunicationsbetweenyourcomputerand thepnnter.atthelowestlevel,atcablelevel.Forexample,acoupleofcontrol codesmakesuretheprinterbufler(yourprinter’sstoragememory)doesn’t overflow. In this book we’ll indicatecontrol codes enclosed by angle bracketsto their abbreviationsin the table:<FF> means the Form Feed controlcode,whichadvancesthe printerto thenextpagejustasthePRINT buttondoes.

Escape sequences

Controlcode 27, <ESC>or Escape, is a particularlyimportantone for

printers.Totellyourprinter allthe thingsyou might need— setting margins, saying where to print, choosing a particular font, starting graphics and so on— requires many more thanjust two or three dozen control codes. So the

<ESC> control code has a special meaning: <ESC> means “the next character specifies a command, not something to be printed”.

Thereforeif yousendjust thecharacter4 totheprinterit willprinta4 and that’sall. 13utifyousendthe<ESC>codejustbeforethe4 thentheprinter

(in EX-800

mode) will switch over to italics text. Extending the control

codes this way gives you many more commands to control

yourprinter.in fact,these“Escapesequences”makeupmostoftheStarLaserPnntcr’slanguage.

In this book we’llleavespaces betweencharacterswhenwe showescape sequences.You’llfind

<ESC>

(SopIOh12vos3T

a bitmorereadablethan

<ESC>(sOp10h12vOs3T

Butrememberthatyouarenotto sendthose spacesifyousendcommands

to theprinter. To sumup, printer commandsareoftwotypes.A controlcodeis asingle-

charactercommandthattellsyourprintertodosomething,likemovedown oneline.AnEscape sequencecontrolsa printeroperationtoo,butis more thanonecharacterlong.Sincetheyarecommands,neithercontrolcodesnor escapesequencesamusuallyprintablecharacters.

Printer drivers

Mostsoftwarepackagesalreadyincludetheprintercommandstheyneed. Theprogramsthatsendcommandstotheprintersoyoudon’thavetoenter themyourself are calledprinterdrivers.

Manyprogramsaskyouto installor configureyourprinter,whichusually meanskeyingintoamenutheparticularsetupinformationdescribingyour StarLaserPrinter8.Youentersuchthingsas howyouwant to underline, alterlinespacing,ormoveto a newprintposition.

Someprograms,suchas WordPetiect andthesystemsfromLotusDevelopmentCorporation,let youput printerEscapesequencesbeforeor right insidethedocumentyouwanttoprint.Toturnonboldface,forexarnple,you mighthold downspecialkeysonyourkeyboard,oftenlabellcdCONTROL orALT,asyoupressanotherkey.OryoumightuseaspecialFunctionkey,

suchas F6. Infact,totakerealadvantageofyourStarLascrPnnter8’sspecialabilities,

youmightoptforawordprocessorthatletsyouspecifyfontchangeseasily. WordPerfectandMicrosoftWord arestrongatthis,butarebynomeansthe onlygoodfontmanipulators.

If youhavetroubleusingaparticularprogramwithyourStarLaserPrinter 8, you’ll probably get answers most quickly by asking your software supplierhowtheprograminteractswithyourprinter.

Inthismanualwerefertoprograms,fontsandotherproductssoldbyseveral companies.PleaserealizethatmentioningtheseproductsdoesnotmeanStar Micronicsendorsesthemin anyway.

Sending your own printer commands

Withouta printerdriver,sendingcontrolcodesand Escapesequencesto yourprinterproperlyrequiressomeknowledgeofaprogramminglanguage likeBASICorPascal,orat leastofhowtoput suchcodesintoa program. Withprogramminglanguages,thecomputerdoesn’tacton thecommands youput intoa programuntilyoutellit to runthatprogram.

Whenyougivea commandto theprinterfroma computerprogram,you normallyentereachpartofthecommandasaseparatecharacter.Thisway youdon’taffectanythingelsehappeningon thecomputer.Youoftensend eachcodeor characterinthecommandbygivingitspositionin theASCII table,as a decimalor hexnumber.

A BASIC example

Here’s an example you can typoin right now, to clarify what we’re saying. It’s

writtenin MicrosoflBASICfor a computerthat uses the MS-DOS operatingsystem,soif youhavea differentcomputeror BASICyoumay haveto translateabit.We’11showcommandsthewaythey’rewrittenforan Epsondot-matrixprinterbecauseyourStarLaserPrinter8understandsthose commands.

TheLPRINTcommandsall senddatatotheprinter.Ifthedataissomething youwantprintedyoujust putit inquotationmarks.If thedatais acontrol codeyoujustsaywhereitisintheASCIItable,givingitspositionasaregular decimalnumber.

BASICusuallysendsacarnagereturnafterevery80characters,tokeepthe print positionmovingwhenit hitsthe endof aline.Unasked-forcarriage returnscanmessupyourprinting,however,so ii’sagoodhabitto putina WIDTHstatementas shown.Thatletsus printoverthe wholepagearea.

The<BEL>controlcode—ASCIIcode7— issentinBASICasCHR$(7). The<ESC>codeitselfisCHR$(27).Andbecausewe’reusingthecharacter 4 as

part of an <ESC>command,wetypeCHR$(52)insteadof“4”.

Soif youstartBASICandtypethesecommands:

NEW

10 ‘ EXAMPLE 20 tiIDTH “LPT1 :”, 255 30 LPRINT CHR$(7)

40 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;CHR$(52)

50 LPRINT “ITALICS ! “ 60 END

RUN

youmaketheprinter(inEX-800mode)firstsoundits bell—mostpeople callit abeeper—andthenprinttheline:

ITALICS!

Generally,whenyousendacontrolorEscapecodeitstaysactiveuntilyou deactivateit. That’swhathappensin line 40 of our programabove.All subsequenttextwillbeitalicizeduntilyouchangeitbacktouprightagain.

Mostprogramminglanguages,andsomeversionsof BASIC,letyoutreat theprinterasa fileto whichyoucansenddata.Whenyouwritea program withoneoftheselanguagesyou“open”the printerfile, printintoit,andthen “close”thefilewhenyou’redone.Thisprogrammingjargonsoundsfunny if you‘renotusedto it—butit works.

Afewprogramminglanguagesletyousendcommandstotheprinterathird way. Applesoft BASICis one. With it, you can switchbetweenprinter outputand screenoutput.

Printer emulations

You noticedthat we said “in EX-800mode”up there?YourStar LaserPrinter8respondstothesameescapesequencecommandsthatseveralother printersuse.BeingabletoemulateprintersliketheDiabloorEpsonEX-800 letsyouuseyourStarLaserPrinter8 witholderprogramsthathaven’tbeen updatedtotakeadvantageoflaserprinters.Infact,becauseitemulatesfour of themostpopularprinters,youcanusethe StarLaserPrinter8withjust aboutanymicrocomputerprogramaround.

Unfortunatelythose printers often use different escape sequencesfor exactlythe same function.Thoseprinters,moreover,provideescape sequencesfor functionsthe Star LaserPrinter8 doesn’tneed, such as the Diablo’sChangePrintwheelcommand.(Printwheels— sometimescalled “daisywheels”- areflatmetalorplasticprintelementsthatholdcharacters outfromahubon “petals”.)Whenyourprintergetsa commanditdoesn’t support,itjust ignoresthecommand.

Macrosaresinglecontrolcodesyoucandefineyourself,whichdothework

ofawholelongseriesofprintercommands.Ifyouareaprogrammeryouwill behappyto heartheStarLaserPrinter8 supportsupto 99 macrosatonce.

:-m

,’ ,. .; . ; ,. ,: ,, .:.. ,. ,’ , ,’.: ~:,, ,. .., ,,.,,. \ ;,, $.

‘ ~~•‘eotitroiling’r’ ‘● -

-,,vd&fipfi3$6+;;:,i; ,.

Youcancontrolyour StarLaserPrinter8 intwoways,eitherthroughfront

panelparameters or through softwarecommands. In thischapterwewill

considerprinter controls mostly from the perspectiveof the frontpanel. However,we’llalsomeetfourspecialcommands,the Star LaserPrinter8

superset.

Throughout this manual we approach parameters and commands the same

way:overall pnnter-level controlsfirst,then page-level controls (layoutand

print position movements), and finally character-level controls

(fontsand

graphics).We’lldiscussthesein generaltermsin thischapter. Thespecificcommandsyoucansendtoyourprintertomakeit emulare,or

worklike,otherprintersare describedin chapters4 through7. The most importantfactaboutprinter commands,though, is thatyou maynot even needto knowhowtousethem.Ifyoursoftwaresystemsincludetheirown printer drivers, you may want to read only this chapter and skip all of chaptem4 through7.

PRINTER PARAMETERS

The front panel

TheeasiestwaytocontrolyourStarLaserPrinter8isthroughitsfrontpanel, asexplainedinmoredetailinyourStarLaserPrinter8OperationsManuai.

Whenyourprinteris online(connectedto and underthe controlof your computer),its front panel display shows you the printer’s status. For example,the READYlight blinkswhen the printeris warmingup. The DATAlight comesonwhenevertheprinterisholdingdataithasn’tprinted yet.

Whenyoupressthe ON

LINE button,theprinterchangesfromnormalto

ofline modeandcannotacceptdatafromyourcomputer.Whentheprinter isofflineyoucanusetheotherpanel buttons.Forinstance,ifyoupressthe

TEST/PREVIOUS button when the laser printer is offline,it finishes

printingthecurrentpageandthenfeedsin andprintsa statussheet. Somebuttons on thepanellet youperformtwo functions.Holdingoneof

those buttonsdown, rather than quickly pressing it, selects a different operation.Forexample,holding down the TEST/PREVIOUS buttonfor overfivesecondsmakestheStarLaserPrinter8printitstestpattern.

Parameter settings

Fromthe panelyoucan alsochangethe parametersthatdefinehow your printerworks.Parameter

just means “variable”. If you’refamiliarwith

earlierkinds of printers, you’llunderstandthat laser printerparameters controlprettymuchthe samethingsDIPswi~chesdo.(ADIPswitchor’’dual in-linepackageswitch”isasetofsmallswitchesthatcontrolvariousprinter functions.)

character (whatcharacterfontto print) layout (howpageswillbeformatted) paper feed(whatpapertheprinterwilluse) command (whichcommandstheprinterwillaccept) interface (howtheprintercommunicateswithyourcomputer)

Theprinterstorestheseparametersaseasy-to-useprogrammenuitemsthat

youcan selectfromthe controlpanel.Theseparametersspecify:

. . .

●

Adefaultisthe settingtheStarLaserPrinter8willuseifnone isspecifically selectedbyqprogram.Whenyoufirstturnonorlatcrresetyourprinterthese defaultsettingswilltakeeffect.

Yourmainuseforthe frontpanelwilllikelybe tosetthedefaultsettingsyou want for these parameters.However,you will probably find the panel

convenienttoo when you wantto switchbetweenmanualand automatic

paperfeed.

Four versions of parameters

TheStarLaserPrinter8actuallystoresfourversionsoftheseparameters:

● its “ultimatedefault”factorysettings,

● thepower-onsettingsin effectwhenyoufirstturnontheprinter,

● yourinitialsettingsfor oneparticularsession,

● andthe currentsettingsthattheprinterisusingnow.

These

are in priorityorder,Thecurrentsettingsalwaysoverridetheinitial

sessionsettings,whichinturnoverridethepower-onsettings,whichinturn overridethefactorysettings.

FactorysettingsarcprogrammedintotheStarLascrPnntcr8whenitisbuilt

at the factory.Yourprinterkeepsthe factorysettingsforiLsparametersin

ROM;theyncvcrchangc.Youcancopythcmiruothecurrentsettingsorany

other settings as needed.Butthe only way you can returnto the factory

dcfaulLsis fromthe frontpanel;nocommandsdothis.

A few

factory default settings arc as follows:

Itcm

Factory default setting

Emulation

HP LaserJet series II

Fccdcr

Paper cassctle Number of’Copies 1 Oricntatim

Portrait Font 1(1-pitch12-point

Councr(intcmal)

Lines/inch 6 linesper inch

The power-onsettingsarc the normaldefaultsettings.The printer keeps

thcmevenwhenyouturnoffthe power.Whenyou turnonthepnntcr,these power-onsettingsgetcopiedintotheinitialandcurrentpararnctcrsctlings.

Youprobablywillnotof’tcnchangetheStarLaserPrinter8‘sinitialsettings (sometimescalled“sessionsettings”).You’lllikelyonlychangethcmwhen you want to use a differentpnntcr cmulation than normal.These initial settingsstaythesameasthepower-onsettingsuntilyouchangethcm.

Ontheotherhand,your software willprobablychangethecurrentsettings

manyJimcs withinthe samedocument,witheverychangeof fontor print

style.

How to change parameters

Withthepnntcroffline,ifyoupressthe PROGRAMbuttonthe printergoes

into“program”mode.Youcan then step throughthe laser printer’sfour ICVCISof programmenuto configureyourprinlcr.That’sthe processof changingcertainprintersettingssoyourcomputerandprintercancommunicateproperly.

It’sactuallyprettyeasy.Flippingthroughand settingparametersfromthe panelisdcscnbcdin detailintheStarLuserPrintcr8 OperationsManual.

Basically,allyoudo is pressthe

NEXT or PREV1OUS buttonsto scroll

throughthescqucnccof possibleparametersandvalues,which is clearly

shownonthepaneldisplay.Youpress

ENTER whenyouwanttogodown

andscrollthrough a lowermenulevel.AndyoualsopressENTER when youwanttosaveaparticularmenuitcmasthevalueforacurrentparameter setting.

Thethreelastmenuheadingsletyouloadone versionoftheparametersinto anotherversion.Two movethe currentparametervalues into either the initialor power-upparameters.Thefinalmenuoptiongoestheotherway, lettingyouloadthefactoryparametersettingsasyourcurrentsettings.

CONTROLLING THE PRINTER

In thissectionyou’ll meettwo separatecontrolsoverhowthe StarLaserPrinter8 itselfworks.The INTERFACEparametercontrolscommunicationsbetweentheprinterandyourcomputer.AndtheCOMMANDparameterdetermines,amongotherthings,whichsetofcommandstheprinterwill use. You can settheseINTERFACEand COMMANDparametersonthe frontpanel.

The INTERFACEparameter

The INTERFACEparameter,the mostbasicof the Star LaserPrinter 8’s

configurationsettings,defineshowyourcomputerconnectsto theprinter. You can set the INTERFACEto either Serial or Parallel (in IBM or Ccntronicsmode).Inmost single-computerenvironmentsyou’lloptforthe fasterParallelinterface;inamulti-usernetworkyoumaybe betteroff with Serial. ~

The particularprinter interface settingsdon’tmatter asmuch asmaking sure

theymatchthoseon your computer.If youuseanMS-DOScomputer,you can set yourcomputer’sparameterswiththe MODEcommand.See your MS-DOSmanual.

MostMS-DOSandAT-compatiblecomputerssupportupto threeparallel

andtwo serialports,whichcomeon expansionboardsyoupluginto your

computer.Whenyouinstallsuchboards youmustsetswitchesto indicate

thenumberandaddressesoftheseports.Ifyouspecifythewrongaddresses, youwon’tbe ableto print.

Serial interface: rate IfyouaskfortheSerialinterfaceyou’llhavetotellyourprintermoreabout howthedatawillbecomingin—inparticularitsrateandunitsizeandthe meaningsof anyspecialbits.

The Rateparameterspecifieshowfastdata willbe arriving,measuredin baud(namedaftertheFrenchcommunicationsengineerJeanBaudot).pick anyof thefollowingdatatransferrates:

300baud 600baud

1200baud 2400baud 4800baud 9600baud(thedefault)

19200baud.

Roughly,one character asecondworksoutto 11baud.1fyou‘renot surehow fast your computer will transmit, the general rule is to cxpcrimcnt. Try sending a page to print at the highest speed, and

workyourwaydownuntil

thepnntcr’soutputlooksOK. Serial interface: specialbits

In-Serialmodeyou’llalsohavetospecifyifyourcomputersendsdatabits in groupsof seven(mostcomputerssendeight,thedefaultfor a byte).

Somelimesanextrabitgets appendedto makethe sumof all bitsin each characteralwaysodd oreven;that’scalledparity. Aparitybitcanhelpspot transmissionerrors.Ifyourcomputersendsthatextraparitybit,you’llhave to say whetherit producesan even or odd number of “on” bits in the character.

You’llalsohave toindicateifyourcomputersendstwostopbitstoindicate thecndof abyte,insteadofone,thedefault.Theseserialintcrfaccsettings

aredcscnbedinmoredetailinyourStarLaserPrinter8OperationsManual. Serial interface: protocol

Finally,in Serialmodeyourcomputerwill use one of threeprotocolsto

ensure data is sent properly. Protocol (sometimes also called “handshak-

ing”)means“whosayswhatwhen”,andis thewayyourprintertellsyour

computerit’sreadytoreceivedata.Yourcomputerandpnntercommunicate bysendingprotocolcontrolcodes(they’reatthe frontof theASCIItable).

SomeprogrammerscalltheXONandXOFFcontrolcodes“kissonandkiss off’;otherscall thesameprotocolDC1andDC3(fordevicecontrol).Either way,thesecodesletyourprinterruntheshow,tellingthecomputerwhento startandstopsendingdata.Yourprinteraskstohavedataheldbackwhen itsmcmoryis nearlyfullor whenitsensesan ERRORcondition.

DTR(DataTerminalReady)protocoldoesthe samethingslightlydifferently.The,printersendsa continuoushigh-voltagesignaloverthecableas long as it can accept data, but drops the voltageto say “whoa”to the computer.

Conversely,it’sthe computerthatholdsthereinswiththe ETX/ACK(Endof-text/Acknowledge)protocol.ThecomputersendsanETXcontrolcode aftereachstringofdata,andwhentheprinterfinallygetsthatcodeit sends anACKcodebackto thecomputer,askingfor more.Thisprotocolis less used by modem computersbecauseit doesn’thold back data when the

printer’smemorygetsswamped, Look in your computer’soperationsmanual,in the sectiondealingwith

communicationsprotocols,to sce whichis bestfor yoursystem.Youcan

sticktotheprinter’sdefaultsifyourcomputerusesneithertheDTRnorthe

ETX/ACKprotocol,butdoesuseXON/XOFF.

If you wantto enableDTRor ETX/ACK,or disableXON/XOFF,you’ll

have to set thoseparametervaluesaccordingly.Turningon onc of these protocolsautomaticallyflipsoff theothers.

Checking your connections

Yourcomputerandprintermayhavetroublecommunicatingwhenyoufirst introducethcmtoeachother.Thequickwaytofindoutif yoursettingsand

printercableareworkingistosendyourprinteraprintoutfromyourscreen

(CHW-P withMS-DOS).

Whenthat’s doneyouwillalsohavetopresstheprintbuttonontheprinter, whichm’akestheprinteradvancetoanewsheet.Nolaserprinterprintsand ejectsapage untilit’stoldtofeedaform,oruntilithasreceivedallthelines thepagecanhold.

If yourStar LaserPrinter8 doesn’tprintwhat’son thecomputerscreen, recheck your connectionsand interface settings. With an applications

programlikeLotus1–2–3orMicrosoftWord,youuscapnntersctup routine to match yourcomputerwithyourprinter’soperatingcharactcnstics.So double-checkyoursoftwaresettings;your computer’soutput,forcxarnple, mightnotbegoingto theproperport.

Printer emulations

OK, you’ve gotyourpnntcr andcomputerconncctcdproperly.NowIct’s focuson howyourpnntcrworks.

Your Star LaserPrintcr 8 understands and uscs the same commands as several earlier kinds of pnntcrs. Your printer works by emulating onc of these:

● Hewlett-Packard LaserJet series H

● Xerox Diablo 630

● Epson EX-800

cIBM Propnntcr

Otherlaserprintersmayoffersuchemulationstoo,butoftenrequireinstallationof a ncw circuitboardfor eachemulation.StarMicronicshas built thesefouremulationsintotheStarLaserPnntcr8.

You

select which emulation you want either by sclccling it from the print program menu on the Star LascrPnnter 8’s front panel, or by sending the pnntcr onc of the supcrsct commands at the

cndof thischapter.

What are the emulated printers like?

MostofthetimeyouwillprobablychooseHPLaserJetseries11emulation, whichisthe defaultwhenyouturnontheStarLaserPrintcr8.That’sbecause the LaserJetseriesH, like theStar LaserPrinter8, is a laser printer.This cmulationmode givesyouthebestcontroloveryourpnntcr’sfeatures,and workswithmostpopularapplicationsprograms.

TheEX-800emulationisquitepowerfultoo.It includesallthedot-matrix pnntcr commands(includinggraphics)used by hundredsof programs. Mmtly,you’llchoosethisoptionwhenyourunaprogramthatcannotsend laserprintercommands.

TheProprintcr,adot-matrixprinterliketheEX-800,hasasimilarcommand

set.YoulikelywilloptforProprintcremulationonlywhenyouwanttouse computer programs spccilicallydesigned for the Propnntcr and IBM computerenvironment.

WhenyouwanttoemulateadaisywheelpnntcryouwillprefertheDiablo emulation.You may alsochoosethisif you use an older textprocessing programthat can’tccntcrorjustifyits printing;Diabloprintercommands can lookafterthosethingsfor you.

The Command parameter

The Star LaserPrinter8’s Emulationsetting defines which printer it is

imitating: Hewlett-PackardLaserJetseries II, Xerox Diablo 630, Epson EX–800or IBMPropnnter.

Mostof theotherCOMMANDvaluesbelowcanbe changedwithEscape codesaswellas fromthepanel.

Asthe

Number of Copies setting suggests, the Star LaserPrinter 8can print

citherjust one copy of each page sentto it,or multiple copies up to 99. Most

wordprocessingandotherpackages,however,let youlookaftermultiple copiesof adocumentwithoutusingthiscommand.Youmayconsequently preferto leavethisatthedefault(onecopy),changingit onlyasnecessary throughsoftwarecommands.

Twosettingsarconly meaningfulwhenyouareusingHPLaserJetseries11 commands.First,ifyouenableMacroOverlay,fromzeroto99 macroscan be active.

Second,mostof thetimeyou’llwantto printacrossthewidthof thepage, butoccasionallyyoumaywanttoprintupthelengthofthe page.Unlikemost otherlaserpnntem,yourStarLaserPrinter8 lets yourotatefontsto print eitherway—youdon’t haveto buyseparatefontsto printsidewaysonthe

page.

Yourprinternormallyfeedsa new formwhenyou rotatea font,to avoid accidentallyprintingbothorientationsonthesamepage.Butifyouwantto

intermixorientations,just change the valueof FF on Rotateto NO. (Font orientationisexplainedinmoredetailbelowwiththeLAYOUTparameter.)

AfewcomputerschangecertaincontrolorEscapecodeswhensendingthem totheprinter,whichnaturallycausesconfusion.Moreover,manyprogrammersprefertoscchexadecimalprintoutwhentheyare debuggingprograms. To helpwiththesesituations,youcanmakeyourStarLaserPnntcr8print inhexadecimalratherthanthe usualASCIImodebyswitchingONtheHEX DUMPparametersetting(seethesidebarbelow).

ThelastthreeCOMMANDvaluesconcernthephysicalmachine.Youcan settheintensityoftheprinter’sLCDdisplayfrom1(faint)to7 (bright);its defaultsettingis 4. You can enable or disableboth the beeper and the WarningAlarm(whichsoundscontinuously).

Hints: The hex dump

● To makeyourStar LaserPrinter8 printin hexadecimalratherthanthe

usualASCIIsymbols,pressthe frontpanelbuttonsthat putthe pnntcr offlineandinPROGRAMmode.MovetotheCOMMANDparameter’s

HEXDUMPsettingand selectON.

● SomccontrolorEscapecodescanbeproblemsonafewcomputcrs;those

computerschangecertaincodeswhensendingthemtotheprinter.Ifyou thinkyouhavethisproblemyouneedtoseeexactlywhatyourprinteris receiving.Werecommendyourunashortprogramthatloopsthroughand printsthe ASCIItable.PrintinhexadecimalratherthantheusualASCII symbols.

● If youspota problemcodeyoucantryto bypasstheproblem,eitherby

sendingeachcodedirectlyto theprinter,orby changingyoursystem printerdriver. Suchcomputer-specificsolutions,though,arebeyondthe scopeof thismanual.Wesuggestthatif necessaryyouconsultanother programmermorefamiliarwithyourcomputer.

● Actually,ifyouaredebugginganyprogramyou mayfindthishex-dump

modehelpful.It canbe a greattrouble-shooter.

CONTROLLING THE PAGE

In this section we look at two controls you have over how the Star LaserPrinter8 handlesand formatsits pages:You can set valuesfor the PAPERFEEDandLAYOUTparametersonthefrontpanel.Atthe end of thissectionwe’llalsopreviewdifferentwaysto movetheprintposition.

The PAPER FEED parameter

ThePAPERFEEDparameterletsyouspecifybothwhatkindofpaperyou wantandhowtheprinteristo handleautomaticprint-positionmovements (carriagereturnsandsoon).

Oneconvenientthing aboutalaserprinteristhat it doesn’tneed

continuous

forms,

sometimescalled~an~okipaper. Otherprintersfeed in a stack of forms—withpagesalljoinedbyperforations-by havingsprocketsengage andpull

alongpinfeed holespunchedalongeachsideofthepaper.Afterit’s

printedyou have to tearoff the pinfeed-holestrips andthen separatethe pages.

WiththeStarLaserPrinter8youcanprintonavarietyofordinarycutsheet pages.

FortheFeedervalue ofthisPAPERFEEDparameter,youfirstentereither cassetteor manualfeed to indicatewhereyou want paper fed from.The cassettetray automaticallyfeedssinglesheets,muchlikesheetfecdemon othertypesof printers.Manual feedmeansyoufeedeachsheetby hand.

Thedefault papersizeis 8.5by 11inchletter-sizepaper;a different-sized tray automaticallyselectsthatdifferentpapersize. If youchoosemanual feedyoucanspecifyothersizestoo:

● 8.5 by 14 inch legal-size paper

● A4 international (used in every country except North America)

(210

by 297 mm)

● B5 international (used in every country except North America)

(182

by 257 mm)

● the narrower “executive”size(7.25by 10.5inches)

Oneothernicethingyoucan do is printdirectlyon envelopes.Withthis Paper Size parameteryou can specifyenvelopesin sizes #10, Monarch,

EuropeanC5 andDL.Thenjust workoutwhereto putthe address,setthe orientationto landscape(see below), and slide your envelopeinto the manualfeed slot.Easy!

Inanyemulationmodeyoucansendyourprintercommandstochangepaper

sizeorfeedin,papermanually;you canalsoselectthoseparametersfromthe panel.Either,way,a messagein theprinterdisplaytellstheoperatorwhat papersizeto use.

Auto parameters Thepnntposition

referstothepointonthe pagewherethenextcharacterwill beprinted.Whentheprinterreachestheendof aline,theAutoParameters settingstellit whetherornotto automatically:

● returntheprintpositiontotheleftmargin(carriage return, sometimes

just called“Return”),

● or moveit downoneline(h%e~eed),

● or keeptextoutof thesidemargin(aurowrap ),

● or keeptextoutof thebottommargin(jbrmfeed ).

Hints: Paper, labels and transparencies

●

✎

ThebestpaperfortheStarLaserPrinter8 hasa smoothfinishandisof

20 to24 poundweight.Anypaperdesignedforphotocopiersshoulddo thetrick though;Xerox4024andCanonNP printnicely. Highquality

cotton bond paper,whichcontainsupto25 percentcottontibres,works

passablywellwithevenheavierweights. The absolute limits arc 16-poundpaperal the lightend and 35-pound

stockattheheaviest.Withhcavypaper,openthetraysothepageswillbc dclivcrcdfaceup andwon’thaveto bendoverthefinalrollers.

Beawarethatanypuckeredor wovenfinishmaynotprintassharplyas you‘dlike.Avoidshinycoatedpaperormultipartforms.Anddon’teven thinkaboutputtingin stapledor rippedpages.

If you frequentlychangepaperweights,youwillprobablygetskewing problcms—linesthatprintal an anglebecauseof misfccding.Forbest results,whenyourStarLaserPrintcr8isfirstsetuphavethepaperfccdcr “squared”forpaperof-atIcast20pounds.Lighterpaper,thoughchcapcr, isn’treallythewayto cconomizc.

Wantto printon yourownpreprintedIcttcrhcad?Fine—solongasyour logoisn’tthermographed.Thickcoloredinkmaylook luxurious,butit canalsowindupstuckall overyourpnntcr’sroller.Stayawayfromany inksthatsoftenatrelativelylowtemperatures;your printerfusespagesat

200: c.

Thiswarningappliestocoloredpapertoo,ifithasbeentintedwitha1ow-

tcmpcraturcdye. ThetoncrcartridgcinyourStarLascrPrintcr8shouldprintatleast4000

pages,20 refillsofthepapertray.Thecostofreplacingatonercartridge

is not muchmore than thatof replacingprintwheels and ribbonson a

daisywhcc.1printer.

Butyou

canextendthelifeof acartridge:Settheprintdensityto 7 or 8

formost of yourprinting—firstdraftsandinternalcompanywork—and

just turnthedialbackto4 or 5 forreportsor lettersthatmustlookgreat.

CAUTION:

the rollers beside the dial may be very hot.

—

Whenprintingstartsfadingbecausethetonerislow,removethecartridge andgentlyrockitbackandforthhalfadozentimes.Don’ttipitupor the tonermayspillout.Redistributingthe tonerpowderthiswaycankeepthe cartridgegoingforanothertrayof paper.

No question,workingwithsinglelabelsheetsis moreconvenientthan withcontinuouslabelstock.Laserprintersarefasterandproducebetterlookinglabels than other printers.But laser printers, which work by electrostaticphotographyrather than impact pressure, put different stressesonlabelpaper.Eachsheethastobendoverandthroughtheguide rollers; moreover,fusing toner to the paper involvesheat. You can

eliminatetroubleby alwaysfeedinglabelsheetsmanually.

BothAvery’s“Lasergraphic”labelsand Canon’slabelsseem to work fine.Yourmainconcernis thatthelabelscompletelycoverthebacking sheetsoitshowsonlyattheoutsidemargins.Thatwayindividuallabels can’teasilypeeloff.

Thesafestapproachistolaser-printsharpmastercopiesonpaperandthen photocopythoselistsontolabels.Thiswill avoidputtingyourprinter’s adjustmentforpaperthicknessoutof adjustment.

If you wantto print transparenciesfor youroverheadprojector,some films will actuallymelt in your laser printer.Stick to 3M’s mediumweighttransparencyfilm(type501)or to Hewlett-Packard’sW2285J.

The LAYOUTparameter

The layout orformat or setup of apagerefersto howtextis positionedon

the page. Layoutincludespage orientation,marginsand the spacingof charactersacrossandlinesdownthepage.Youcancontrolthesewiththe LAYOUTparameter.

You probablywon’t use the LAYOUT parameteron the front panel’s programmenuverymuchthough.Mostof thetimeyou’lleitherleavethe StarLaserPrinter8 with itsdefaultsettings,or lookafterpageformatting withcommandsyousendfromyourcomputer.

Page orientation

Apage’s orientation tellsyouinwhichdirectiontheprintgoesonthepage. Whenyouuseportraitorientationthelinesareprintedastheyareinanormal businessletter,acrossthewidthofthepage.Aportraitpaintingof aperson is

usually vertical-hence the name.

Landscape

Portrait

Whenyouuselanakcape orientationthewordsareprinted“ontheirsides,” verticallyupthelengthofthepage.Textwrittenwithlandscapeorientation onlylookscorrectwhenyouturnthepagesoitslengthrunsside-to-side,just likethe paintingofa landscape.’

Envelopesmustbe printedwithlandscapeorientation.Youalso will use

landscaperegularlyto printchartsor banners,andspreadsheetsor reports

withso manycolumnstheywouldn’totherwisefiton thepage. Allinternalfonts,andalmostallcartridgeanddownloadedfonts,arestored

in theStarLascrPnnter8 withportraitorientation.

Margins, columns and lines

Youcanchangemarginsettingsforallfouredgesofapage.Theleftandright sidemarginscanhavevaluesfromOto 132,definingthemargincolumns betweenwhichwordsandimagescarIbeprinted.Andthetop andbottom

marginscanbe setat anywherefromOto 112 lines.

Top Margin

@19

Side Margins

Text

Length

{

‘\Line

Column

Porlrait

Bottom Margin

Landscape

Orientation

Theactualmeaningofacolumnis definedby thesettingforthe

horizontal

motion index

(HMI).The HMIjust meanshowwideyou wantthe space characterto be.Eachcolumn,ruining frompagetopto bottom,willbethe widthof a space.

Youprobablywillletyoursoftwareworryaboutthespacewidth.Butif you want,youcan setthe HMIparameteronthe panelin incrementsof 1/120 inch—anywherefrom 1to255increments.

Similarly,themeaningofaline(sometimescalleda“row”)isdefinedbythe

verticalmotion index (VMI).Theprintermovestheprintpositiondowna

line whenit getsa LineFeed code,usuallywhenit bumpsinto the right margin. Again,you’llprobablylet yourcomputerprogramsetthe linedepth.But from the panel you can set the VMI value in incrementsfrom 1/48to 255/48of an inch.

Moving the print position: a preview

Wlthdot-matnxanddaisywheelprinters,youpickwheretoprint onthepage eitherbymovingthepnntheadbackandforthorbymovingthepaperitself.

Laserpnntemdon’thaveprintheads,buttheprincipleremainsthesame:you havetosayexactlywhereonthepage eachpictureandstringoftextistogo,

so eachpagecanbeconstructedin theprinter’smemory. Insteadoftalkingaboutprintheadswetalkaboutmovingtheprint

position

(some people call it moving the “cursor,” using the computer-screen analogy).Horizontally,youcanmovetheprintpositionwithbackspaceand carriageretumcommands.Vertically,youcanmovetheprintpositiondown thepagebyprintingsomanylinesperinch,orbysendingline-feedandhalf

line-feedcommands.Youcan alsomoveto tab settingsbothhorizontally

andvertically(handyfortablesandblankforms,ormakingroomforyour

diagrams).

Butthosearen’tall.Dependingonwhichprinteremulationyou areusing, you”cantellthe StarLaserPrinter8 to movetheprintpositionverticallyor

horizontallyin incrementsof:

1/10,1/12or similarfractionsof aninch(pitchsettings),

1/48,1/60,1/72,1/120or 1/216inch(lineor column definitions),

l/3CN)inch(dots),or

1/720inch(tenths of apoint).

These incrementsreflectthehistoryof twentiethcenturyprinting.

Pifch,

referringtothe numberofcharactersprintedineachhorizontalinch,derives fromhowtypewritersspacetheircharacters.

Lines andcolumnswerefirst

usedby earliercomputerprinters(onwhichtheyarecalledhorizontaland verticalmotionindexes).YoualreadyknowabouttheStarLaserPrinter8 beingableto print300dotsto the inch.Andtheunitby whichtypesetters havemeasuredtextforcenturiesisthe

point, aboutl/72ndof an inch.

Onehintaboutmovingtheprintposition:youcanconfuseyourselfif you usemorethanone ortwodifferentunitsduringthesamesession.Sodecide beforehandhow accuratelyyou need to move the print position (not

forgettinganygraphicsyouwantto include).Then stickto theunit(s)you choose.

Thecommandsthatmovetheprintpositionin allthesewaysaredescribed inchapters4 through7,withthespecificprinteremulationyouwant touse.

CONTROLLING THE PRINTING

The EMULATEATT../BUTES parameter

TheEMULATEATTRIBUTESparameterdefinesfontattributesandsetup values(ifany)foreachoftheStarLaserPrinter8’sfouremulationmodes.

Afont’s

attributesorcharacteristicsdeterminewhatthatfontwilllooklike

whenit isprinted.Thenext chapter,“Fonts,”exploresthedetailsofallfont attributesin more detail.But let’s have a quickoverviewnow, because you’llmeetthesetermson thefrontpanel’sprogrammenu.

Font attributes: a preview

Orientation(portraitorlandscapeasdescribedearlier)isusuallythoughtof as one attributeof a font;it’snot reallya pageformattingissue.Besides orientation,thefontswithwhichyouprinthavetheseattributes:

Symbolset is sometimescalled“characterset”- whichcanbe confusing, sincesomepeople say“characterset”whentheymeana font.Symbolsets are subgroupsof a font’ssymbolsthatare mostappropriateforparticular countries,suchastheUK(f), France(h),LatinAmerica(fi)orJapan(%).

Spacing andpitch arelinked. Characterscanbespacedon theline propor- tionally, so

anarrowlettersuchasi takeslessroomthana wideletterlike

W. Orcharacterscanbespacedallthesamewidth:twelvecharacterstothe

inchis the

monospaced spacingcalled 12pitch.

Pointsize dcfincshowbigcharacterswillprint,suchasIOor 12pointshigh.

Styledefines whethercharactersprintin uprightor

italic style.

Stroke weight defineshowbold a typefaceprints.

Finally,

typeface itselfmeansthe artisticdesignof a font. Yourpnntcr’s

internaltypefacesincludeTms Romn,LinePrinter,CourierandPrestige Elite.WiththeStarLaserPrinter8 youcanalsouseHelvet,Gothic,Script, Caslon,Oratorandhundredsmoretypefaces,whichyouloadintotheprinter fromcartridgeor computerdisk.

Whenyouenablefont

setupparameters onthefrontpanel,itmeansyoustart

off with particularfont attributesas defaults when you first choose an emulation.WiththeEX-800andDiabloemulationsyoucanenableproportionalspacingandboldprintassetupparameters.EX-800modealsoletsyou startupwithhalf ofyour symbolsetasgraphicscharactersinsteadofitalics.

THE STAR LASERPRINTER 8 SUPERSET

Do you need to send commands?

Here’s an importantfact: you can set nearly every one of the above pararnctcrsby sending your printer a corresponding Escape sequence command.ThoseEscapesequencecommandswilloverrideanysettingyou makefromthefrontpanel.

Themainthing to realizeaboutmost printercommands,though,isthatyou

probablydon’t need to use them. Nearly all popularsoftwarepackages includeprinterdrivers,whichsendcommandsto theprinterso you don’t haveto typethemyourself.Someof thoseprogramsaskyouto keyin setup paramctcn about your printer. Other programs let you put printer commandsbeforeorinsidethedocumentyouwantto print.

Butmaybethesoftwareyouusedoesn’thaveprinterdriversforanyprinter yourStarLaserPnntcr8emulates:Youstillmightnothavetowritepnntcr commandsyourself.

Severalcompaniessellprogramsthatlook afterlaser-printingcommands for such software.Ask your dealer about

LaserControl, Printworks for

Lasers, PCLPak

andRAM Resident Printmerge. There’snotmuchpointin

reinventingthewheel.

The Star LaserPrinter8 superset

Besides the commands that emulate other printers, your laser printer understandsfourothercommandscalledtheStarLaserPrinter8

superset.

The Star LaserPrintcralways understandssupersetcommands;it doesn’t matterwhichemulationmodeyourprinterisusingatthemomcnl.Supcrsct Escapesequencecommandsstaflwilh<ESC>[ so you can quicklyspot

themin a listof commands. Onesupcrsetcommandgivesyouanotherwaytoswitchfromoneemulation

to another: you sendthe ChangeEmulationsupersetcommandinsteadof usingthe frontpanel.The secondsupersetcommandletsyou changethe printingorientation,so you canprint sidewaysup the lengthof the page,

insteadofacrossits widthintheusualway.Thethirdsupcrsctcommandlets

youchangethepapersize.Thefourthsupersctcommandletsyouchangethe

papercassette for thedual-cassetteprinter.

The Change Emulation command

YoucanthinkofthesupcrsetChangeEmulationcommandasthekeytoyour Star LaserPrinter8. The ChangeEmulationsupersetcommandlets you switchfromone setof printercommandsto another“onthefly,”through software.

ThisisthecommandthatdefineswhatothercommandstheStarLaserPrinter

8will accept.WithChangeEmulationyouindicatewhichprinteremulation programyouwanttheprintertouse.

Whenyoustarta newemulationyoualwaysstarta newpage.

Note:alwayssendCarriageReturnandFormFeed(controlcodes<CR>and

<FF>)justbeforeyougive thisChangeEmulationcommand.Theseforce theprintertoprintanypartialpage in itsmemoryandstartanewpagewith thenewemulation.If youforgettoissuethesecontrolcodesfirstthe Star

LascrPrinter8willdothemforyou—butyourChangeEmulationcommand

willjust resettheprinter’sparametersto theirinitialdefaults,andnotgive youthe emulationyouaskfor.

You issue the ChangeEmulationcommandwith the followingEscape sequence:

<ESC>[E n

Forthevalueof n youenteranumberfromthistable:

n< EMULATION

O(zero)HPLaserJetII J (one) Diablo630 2 EpsonEX-800 3

IBMProprinter

The Select Orientation command

The Select Orientationsupersetcommandletsyouchangethe“attitude”in

whichtheStarLaserPrinter8prints. Tochangefromoneorientationtothe otheryousendthis SelectOrientation

Escapesequence:

<ESC>[ O n

Forthevaluen youput O(zero)forportraitorientation,

or 1(one)forlandscapeorientation.

When you send this command to print in landscapemode, the printer automaticallyrotates its currentfontso thatit printsaslandscape.

The spotor line whereprintingstartson thepageis sometimescalledthe

origin or top ofform.

Theoriginchangeswhenyouswitchorientations.

Thatstartingprintpositionisintheupperleftcornerforaportraitpage,but

in thelowerleftcomerfora landscapepage.

TheStarLaserPrinter8letsyoumixportraitandlandscapeorientationson thesame page.Becausethestartingprintpositionchangeswhenyouswitch orientationsthough,you have to rememberto re-orientcommandsthat move the print position.If you don’t want to allow the printer to mix orientations,usethefrontpanelprogrammenuto changetheCOMMAND parameterFFon ROTATEvalue to NO.

Youprobablywon’twanttochangeorientationallthatoften.Everytimeyou do,th~StarLaserPrinter8alsoresetsthe pagemarginstoitslimits,andalso howitdefines linesandcolumns.SowheneveryougivetheSelectOrientationcommandyoumaywanttofollowitwithEscapesequencestochange thesideandtop marginsandpaperlengthsettings.(Alternatively,youcould putrheprinterofflineandresetthesefromthe frontpanel,asdescribedunder LAYOUTearlier.)

The Paper Size command

ThePaperSizesupersetcommandletsyouchangethepapersizein which theStarLascrPrinter8prints.

This is the commandthat defineswhat sizethe Star LaserPrintcr8 will accept. You issue the Paper Size commandwith the sequence:

<ESC>[ S n

Forthevalueof n youentera numberfromthistable:

n SIZE

1 Lettersizepaper

Legalsizepaper

A4 Internationalsizepaper 4 Executivesizepaper 5

B5 Intcmationalsizepaper

11 Monarchsizeenvelope 12 Com-10sizeenvelope

13 InternationalDLsizeenvelope

14 InternationalC5sizeenvelope

followingEscape

This commandcontrolsthe size that the printer should use when nexl

feedingfrom the selectedpaper feeder.If the printerdoes not have the requestedsize, the frontpanel willdisplaya messageinstructingyou to inserttherequestedpaper/envelope.If theoperatoroverridesthatrequest, therequestedsizeis ignored andthesizeofthecurrentcassetteis used.

If youhavepreviouslysetthecassetteselectionto “automatic”,andoneof thecasscttcscontainsthepapersizerequestedinthecommandabove,that papcrcasscttcwillautomaticallybeselected,andpaperfeedwillcommence

fromthere.Thelampsonthefrontpanelwillchangeafterthiscommandhas

beenproccsscd,to showyouwhatcasscttchasbeenselected.

The Paper Feeder command

ThePaperFeedersupersctcommandletsyouchangethepaperfeederfrom whichthedual-cassettetype printerfeedspaper.

To changethepaperfeederyousendthePaperFeederEscapesequence:

<ESC>[ C n

Forthevalueof n youentera numberfromthistable:

PAPERFEEDER

1 Uppercassette

2 Uppercassettefor onesheet,thenswitchesto thelower

cassette

Optionalenvelopefeeder

Lowercassette

Lowercassettefor one sheet,then switchesto the upper casscttc

Thiscommand,ifgivenatthebeginningofapage,controlsthefeederofthe

sheeton whichtoprintthatpage. Ifthecommandisnotatthe beginningofthepage, itwillforceaFormFeed

andcontrolthe feederof the sheeton whichto printthe ncwpage which follows.

Thiscommandisignoredforthesingle-cassettetypepnntcrsincethistype

printerhas onlyonecassette.

Select Simplex/duplex mode (DX type only)

Youcan changebetweensimplexandduplexmodeusingsoftwarecommandsin anyemulationmode.Thecommandtodo thisis:

<ESC>[ D n

wheren is an ASCIIvalueof either“1”or “2”.If n is set to”1”, then the printerwillentersimplexmode,andifnis“2”,theprinterwillenterduplex mode.

Iftheprinterisinsimplexmode,the”1”optionwillhavenoeffect.Ifthe “2” optionis chosen whiletheprinter is in duplexmode,it isonlyvalidif then

face-downoutput stackhasbeen selected.Thepagecontainingthis commandwillbecomethe faceof thedouble-sidedpage.

If the printer is in duplexmode, the “l” option will force single-sided printing,commencingwiththepagecontainingthiscommand.Iftheprinter isalreadyinduplexmode,the pagecontainingthiscommandwillbcforced to be thefaceof thenextdouble-sidedpage.

The DUPLEXlight on the frontpanelwill indicatethe currentsimplex/ duplexstatusof theprinterfollowingreceiptof thiscommand.

Thefontsyouusedeterminewhatyour pageswilllooklike.In thischapter we’llfirst clarifythe meaningsof wordspeopleusewhentheytalk about fonts.

Nextwe’llexaminethethreekinds of fonts(internal,cartridgeanddownloaded)that you can use on your Star LaserPrinter8. We’ll cover the particularsetsof symbolsyoucanchoosefor thosefontstoo. Finally,we’llfindouthowto loadtheprinterwithyourselectionof fonts.

FONT TERMINOLOGY

Typefacesand fonts

First,a fewdefinitions.A typefaceisa familyof characterswiththe same

basicdesign.Theartisticcharacterdesignyouchooseestablishesthe“tone

of voice”for allyourdocuments.

Several variables can characterizetypefaces, including weight (light,

mediu’m,bold),width(condensedorextended),andstyle(uprightoritalic).

Courier,forexample,isa typefacefamilythatincludesthecharactersinboth

Courier medi

urnitalic andCourier bold upright

Let’sconsiderthesevariables.Boldpnntissometimescalled“emphasized”

or’’double-strike”.Onearlierprintersboldfaceisgeneratedbyprintingeach

charactertwice;dot-matrixmachinesprintthesecondimpressionjust ahair

beloworto therightof thefirstone. Withthe StarLaserPrinter8 youcanhavedifferentstrokeweightsin two

ways, dependingon which emulation you are using. You can have two differentfonts,storingandswitchingbetweenaboldanda mediumversion ofthefont.Oryou canusejustonefontandsetboldonandoffwithEscape sequences.Thelatterwayusesjust halfas muchfontmemory.

Narrowcondensedfacesusedtobecalled“compressed”.Theycramabout fivecharacteminthespacewherethreeusuallygo-ideal forspreadsheets. An extendedface, particularlyon a dot-matrixprinter,goes by several

names:“expanded,

““enlarged”or’’double-width’’printing.Nomatterwhat it’scalled,extendedprintiswiderthanitishigh,andcanbefairlyeffective in pageheadings.

Italiccharacters(sometimescalled“oblique”)areslanted.Ordinaryupright charactersareoftencalled“reman”.YourStarLaserPrinter8comeswitha

built-inuprightCouriertypeface.Moreover,from anyof the Star LaserPrinter 8’s built-intypefacesyoucan selecta subsetof uprightsymbols calledRoman-8.

Afonf isacompletesetofcharactersinapafiicularsizeandtypeface.Inthe worldoflaser printers,thethreevariablesmentionedabove—weight,width and style—area few

fontattributes(sometimescalled“fontcharacteris-

tics”).Let’sconsiderthreemoreattributes:fontheight,spacingandpitch.

Fontheight

Thebaselineistheinvisiblelineuponwhichcharactersoftypesit.Sincethe

firstletterblocksweremadeofleadalloy,thedistancefromonebaselineto

thenextis calledleading(pronounced“ledding”).Typeitselfis measured fromthetopofanascender(thepanextendingupinthebork, forcxample) to thebottomof a descender(thedown-strokeof they or q ). Themeasurementsusedtodescribefontsarepointsandpicas(derivedfrom themarksandlettersinmedievalchurchalmanacs).Thereare 12pointsto the pica, and almostexactly 6 picas (72 points)to the inch. Your Star LaserPrinter 8 quitehandilyprintstypefrom6 to 36pointsin size.

Laserprintersforcomputersmeasurefontheightinpoints.Onlaserprinters the“whitespace”aboveascendersandbelowdescendersdependsonhow the line is defined,so the line correspondsto leading.This type you’re readinghasa font heightof 12points,and isspacedalittlelessthan5 lines

per inch.

The o has been kerned

The font height (24 points) is measured

closer to the f.

from

●scender to descender.

A font is a complete set of

~ characters in a particular

~~~~~~~

size and type~ace.

B.ss@line

Proportional

Serif

spacing

L;ading is the baseline to bas-line measurement.

Fontspacingandpitch

Youprobablyfirst heard the wordpitch in comection with typewriters. Typewritersnormallyuse monospacedspacing:theygiveeachcharacterthe

sameamountof spaceontheline. Abouthalfthe fontsavailableforlaserprintersusemonospacedspacingtoo.

Pitch is alwaysexpressedas so manycharactemper inch.Ten-pitch,for example,meansa fontwithtencharactersineachinchof theline.

Typesetter forcenturieshaveusedtwospecialsizesoftypeformosttext. EfitecharactersareIOpointshighand print12charactersperinch.Andpica chararactersare 12 pointshigh and pitchedat 10 charactersto the inch. You’ll,often run acrossthesemonospacedfontsizesin thelaser printing world.

Ideallyeachcharacterinawordshouldnestleagainstitsncighbourssothey appearevenly spaced.Butadjacentroundcharactersare apt to look100far apart,whileflat-sidedcharactersmay appeartooclose.

Proportionalspacingtakesintoaccountthe differencesin widthsamong letters(compareii withWW).Proportionallyspacedprintingiseasiertoread than typewriter-styleprintingin whichall characters,includingpunctuation,havethesamewidth.

Realtypesettersequipcertaincharactemwithkerns,letterpartsthatextend out to overlapadjoiningletters.In this word Typethey is kernedclosely

againsttheT. Kerningseparatesgreattypefromgoodtype.

HOW THE STAR LASEI?PRINTER8

Bit-mappedfonts

STORES FONTS

StarMicmnicshas earnedareputationforattractive,well-designedfontson

itsprinters,andthislaserprintercontinuesthetradition. TheStarLaserPrinter8 usesbit-mappedfonts.Eachcharacterismadeup

ofa patternor “map”ofdots,just likecharacterson adot-matrixprinteror on yourcomputerscreen.Resolutionmakesthe difference:to makeeach charactertheStarLaserPrinter8 usestenortwentytimesasmanydotsas

a dot-matrixprinterorcomputerscreendoes.

Everysizeofprintyouwant,pluseveryitalicorboldfaceversion,hasitsown bitmapandis normallyconsidereda separatefont.It takesa gooddealof printermemorytoholdallthefontsyoumightwantatanygivenmoment.

Star LaserPrinter8 fontscan be groupedinto three categories:internal,

cartridge,anddowrdoadablefonts.

Internalfonts

The StarLaserPrinter8 hasfourbuilt-ininternalfontsthat residepermanentlyin its read-onlymemory(ROM).That’swhy theseare sometimes called“residentfonts”:

Courier

Prestige Elite

Tms Romn

Line Printer

Courieristhefaceusedon themostcommonelectrictypewriters.Neither

CouriernorPrestigeElite,anothertypewriterface,areprintedwithproportionalspacing.TmsRomnhowever,is alwaysspacedproportionally.Tms Romnis probablythemostreadableandmostpopularcommercialtypesettingface.TheLinePrinterfont,desi~ed originallyformainframecomputers,is smallanddesignedtopackalotofcharactersintoeveryinchofprint

(greatfor spreadsheets). Withthesemost frequentlyusedfontsin ROM,a pagecan be assembled

muchfasterthanifthe fontshadtobeloadedintotheprinterforeachprinting

job.

Cartridgeanddownloadedfonts

YourStarLaserPrinter8canusetwootherkindsof fonts,alongwiththose

builtintotheprinter. Cartridgefonts,like the internal ones, are permanentlystored on ROM

chips.ThedifferenceisthatthoseROMsaminremovablecartridges.Your

StarLaserPrinter8 hasslotsfortwo fontcartridges.

Eachcartridgemayholdanywherefmmhalfadozentotwodozenfonts,all

differingfromtheinternalfonts in size,style,strokeweightor symbolset. You’llfindthatcartridgefontsopenupawiderrangeoftypefacestoo,such as HelvetandLetterGothic.Generally,cartridgeand internalfonttypefaces aresuitableforbothtextandheadlines.

The third kind of font is neitherbuilt into your Star LaserPrinter8 nor

availablejust by slippingin a cartridge.Youdownioadthiskind of font, which means you use a computerprogram to send characters from a

computerdisktoyourprinter’smemory.Anydownloadedfont(sometimes called a “soft” or “installed”font)that you put into the printer’sRAM

disappearswhenyouturnofftheprinter,soyouhavetodownloadthatfont

againnexttimeyouwantit. Downloadablefonts run the gamutfromEgyptianhieroglyphicsto those

eye-catchingdecorativefarmknownasdisplayfonts.Theyalsoincludethe more exoticforeign-languagecharacters,suchas Arabicor Cynllic, and symboland mathematicalfonts(sometimeswithfractions).

Howcan you compare cartridgeanddownloadablefonts?Whenyou use cartridgefontsyoudon’thaveto taketimeto downloadthcm.Theydon’t

takeanyofyour StarLaserPrinter8‘sRAMmemoryeither. Butdowrdoad-

ablefontsoffermanymorechoices.Downloadablcfontsusuallycostless

too. Theprinteralwaysknowswhereitsinternalfontsarc.Foreachemulation

program,it alsokeepstrackof cartridgeanddownloadedfontsin apartof

itsmemorycalledthe~onttable.

SowiththeStarLaserPrinter8youcanhavemanyfontsavailableatanyone

time—theinternalfonts,thefonts on anycassettesyou’vepluggedin, and

any fonts you have downloaded.You can change fonts in mid-lineto emphasizea word or two wheneveryou want. You can mix internal,

cartridgeanddownloadedfontsin thesamedocument.Youcanuse fonts

frombothcartridge slotswithinthe samedocumenttoo.

Hints:Wheretoget fonts

● Youcati printanydownloadablefontthatworksontheHPLascrJctseries

II. Severalothercompaniesselldownloadablefontswhicharecompatiblewithyour StarLaserPrinter8.TheBitstreamCorporationinBoston isoneofthemorepopular;Conographicisanother.Xeroxincludesaset of fontswithits VenturaPublisherdesktoppublishingsoftware,which

youcan usewithyourprinter’sLaserJetIIemulation.

● The SoftCraftcompanynow markets a Bitstmam-developedproduct

called“Fontwarc”.WithFontwareyoucangeneratebit-mappedfontsof

anysizefroma libraryof outlinefonts.Inoutlinefontseachcharacter’s profileisdefinedjustonceandtheprintergeneratesanyfontheightfrom thatprofile,whichsavesprintermemory.

Outlinefontsdemand awesomecomputingpowerof theprinterthough,

so they’ve been availableonly on laser printers considerablymore expensive than the Star LaserPrinter 8. Now, with programs like Fontware,your StarLaserPrinter8 canturnoutelegantprintinanysize

withoutthathighprice.

● Don’thesitateto ask yourStardealerwhereyoucan buycartridge and

downloadablefonts.If you reallycan’tfind theoneyouneed,youcan designand downloadyourowncustomizedfonts.Thisisnoemyjob,but if you’recuriousit’sdescribedin chapter4.

SYMBOL SETS

Let’ssummarizebriefly,toputthe subjectof symbolsetsin context. The attributesof a fontdeterminewhatthatfont willlooklike whenit is printed.We coveredall but orientationat the start of this chapter, and orientationin thelastchapter.A font’sattributesinclude:

. . . . . .

●

✎

orientation (portraitor landscape) symbol set (whichwe’lllookat next) spacing (monospacedorproportional) pitch (10or 16.66charactersperinch,forexample) font height (measuredinpoints)

style (uprightor italics) stroke

weight (light,mediumorbold)

typeface (LinePrinter,TmsRomn,Courierandso on)

Thoughthey are not font attributes,suchprintingfeaturesas subscripts,

superscriptsandunderliningaretreatedalongwith fontsin the following

chapters.Eachemulationhasitsownwayof providingthesefeatures. Incidentally,thebestwayto underlineis to usethe underlinecommandin

theemulationyouareusing,insteadof backspacingandoverprintingwith theseparateunderlinecharacter(–).Ifyoudothelatterwith

proportionally

spacedtext,you’ll usuallyfindtheunderliningistoo longfor thetext.

Whatare symbol sets?

Keyboardsdifferfromcountrytocountry.TheBritishneedtheirf symbol, theFrenchneedtheirQand6,theSpanishneedtheir~andiletc. Scientists needparticularmathematicalsignstoo.Thereeasilycouldbefourhundred or morepossible symbolsfor anygivenfont.

However,thenumberof symbolsprintersstorefora fontislimitedto 256 slots,asinASCII.Sosomesymbols,ortheorderofsomesymbols,candiffer in anyfont.Eachuniqueselectionandarrangementof symbolsisa symbol set (sometimescalleda “graphicset”or“characterset”).

The symtmlatposition 91 forexampleisan openbracket,[ , in theusual

ASCIIsymbolset. Butthesamepositionholds A(capitalAwithanumlaut) in theGermansymbolset.

Youprobablywon’tchangesymbolsetsveryoften,unlessyouneedspeciaI symbolsforyourtradeor regularlywritein alanguageotherthanEnglish. Whenyoudoneedthem,though;inoneoranotheremulationmodeyourStar Laserl%intcr8 supportssymbolsetsforallthesecountries:

U.S.(ASCII) UnitedKingdom

France

Germany

Sweden

Finland

Italy

Denmark

Norway

Spain

Besidesthese yourprintersupportssetscontainingjustsymbols,suchasthe Greekalphabet(B),logicsymbols(S),arrows(#),theregisteredtrademark symbol(Q) andso on.

Each emulat~onhas symbol sets

Yourlaserprinterworksby emulatingor followingcommandsdeveloped originallyforotherprinters.OneoftheStarLaserPrinter8’sadvantagesis thatitoffersyouachoiceofseveralbuilt-insymbolsetsforeachfontineach emulation.

TheactualEX-800,PropnnterandDiabloprintersdon’tusesymbolsetsto produceinternationalaccentedcharactersandspecialsymbols.Instead,the EX-800 and Propnnter let you define which charactersyou want with parameter settings, and the Diablo lets you change pnntwhcels. Both approachesproducemuchthesameeffectasswitchingsymbolsets,however,so we~llstickto thissingleconceptthroughoutthismanual.

WhenyourStarLaserPrinter8 isemulatingtheHPLaserJetH, thenormal default’symbol set is the Roman-8set. Roman-8includesall the usual keyboardcharacters,numbersandsymbolsinASCII,plusaccentedforeignlanguagecharactersandspecialsymbols(butnothingforlinedrawing).

Tocomplementthese, in theProprinteremulationyourStarLaserPrinter8

offerstwoseparateIBMsymbolsets.Theseincludestandardline-drawing andmathematicalsymbolsalongwithforeigncharacters.Thatmakesthe StarLaserPnntcr8agoodmatchforhundredsofwordprocessingandother

programs that expect these symbols, which most font designemomit

(especiallytheIBMHappyFace).

The EpsonEX-800emulationis reallyversatile.Itlets you havebothof

thoseIBMsymbolsetsplusEpson’sownstandardsymbolset.ThisEpson symbolset isunusual:itcontainsbothuprightanditaliccharacters in the same set. You may also choose from symbolsets for all the countries mentionedabove,plusaseconduniquesetforeachof DenmarkandSpain.

Withthe Diabloemulation,Roman-8isthe normalsymbol set.

Default font attributes

Whenyoupoweronyourprinterandchooseanemulation,theinternalfonts startoffwithdefaultattributeswhichyoucanchangeasneeded.Thedefault symbolsetsdependon theemulation:inLaserJetII andDiablomodesthe defaultisRoman-8,inProprintermodeit’sIBMSet1,andinEpsonEX-800 modeit’sEpsonStd USA.

Besidesthese,allinternalfontsdefaulttoportraitorientation,uprightstyle (notitalics)andmediumboldness.Thetablebelowshowsthcirotherdefault attributes:

Typeface Spacing

Pitch Font height

Courier

monospaced 10

12point

PrestigeElite monospaced 12

10point

TmsRomn proportional –

10point

LinePrinter monospaced

16.6

8.5point

Technically,youcanuseanyofthe StarLaserPrinter8’sresidentfontswhen

yousendcommandsemulatingaparticularprinter.Buteachemulationonly

printsproperlywiththefontsdesignedforit.Furthermore,youcanonlyuse

symbolsets, or arrangementsof those fonts, which that emulationcan handle.So be awarethat, if you try usingfonts otherthan those recommended for a particularemulation,you will usually get printing in the emulation’sdefaultfont.

If youwanta characterthat’snotinthefontyou’reusing,don’thesitateto grabit. JustsendtheEscapesequencesthatselectyourdesiredsymbolset, printwithit, thengobackto youroriginalfont.

MANAGING FONTS

Youcan sccwhichfontsarecuncntlyselectedon yourStarLaserPrinter8 byprintinga status sheetinofflinemode,asmentionedatthebeginningof thischapter.AnotherTESTmodemenuitem,describedintheStar LuserPrinter8 OperationsManual,alsoletsyouprintout a listof all thefonts

availableon theprinterat anygivenmoment.

Selectingfonts

Most popular software packages,particularlyword processors,let you choosefontsfromwithintheprogram.Theysendtheappropriatecommands to theprinterandyoudon’tneedto understandhowtheydo it.A4uhiilfate uscspitchto identifydifferentfonts,forexample,whileWordPerfect

uses

printformats.Thepointis,youmaynotevenhaveto worryaboutselecting whichfontto use.

Butnotallpackagesdothejob foryou. If youarcin thissituation,youcan selectanyfontattnbutc mentionedabove,eitherfromthe frontpanelor by sendingan Escape sequencecommandinoneof theemulationmodes.

Ifyouuscthefrontpanelinprogrammode,you’llscctheseattnbutcsunder theFontAttnbutcs levelof theEMULATIONAttributes menu.Just pressthe

NEXT buttonto get to the fontattnbutcyou wantto set, press

ENTER togettoitspossiblevalues,pressNEXT toscanthroughthem,and

finallypress

ENTER to slapin thevalueyouwant.

Theproceduresforselectinga fontfroma computerprogramisa bitmore complicated,anddependson whichemulationmodeyou areusing.These

fontselectionmethodsaredetailedinthenextfourchapters.

Hints:Desktoppublishingandpage design

● Desktoppublishingsystcmshelp youautomateyourspecificationsfor

margins,coverdesign,typefaces,fontsizes,placementof graphicsand regular features.You build the specificationsyou want in tempfates, standardpage designsyoulatersimplycallup onyourscreenandfillin withtext.

● Somcdcsktoppublishingsystems,suchasAldus’sPageMaker,arepage-

oncnted:you put each pagetogetherindividually.These are great for shorter documents,such as newsletters, brochures and letters. Other

systems,such as Xerox’s VenturaPublisher,are document-oriented. Thatmakesthem bettersuitedtotechnicalmanualsandlongproposalsor reportsthatgo throughmanydrafts.

Otherwaysin whichsuchsystemsdifferincludewhethertheyshowon yourscreenwhatyouwill getonpaper(code-basedprogramsdon’t),how wellthey handle pictures,andhowhard theyarc to learn.Thinkabout yourneedsbeforechoosinga desktoppublishingsystem.

● A few of today’scomputerprogramslet yousee severaldifferentfont

sizesandtypefacesonyourcomputerscreen.Thatcapabilityisncccssary if youwantto seeon-screenexactlywhatwillprint on yourStarLaserPrintcr8. Desktoppublisherscallthis capabilityWYSIWYG—“what

yousee is whatyouget”. While“screenfonts”that matchthe fontsyou useon yourStar Laser-

Printer8werenotavailablewhenthis manualwaswritten,youmayeven-

tuallybeabletoget them.WYSIWYGdependsonwhatsoftwareyouarc using.

● Whenyoudesignyourpages,don’tvaryfontsizejust to fittextintothe

spaceavailable.Go witha sizethat’seasyto readandbe consistent. Ncvcrbctcmptedtousealluppercaseletters.Whenyouwanttohighlight

text,switchto a boldfontor drawa boxaroundit.

● Don’tbe afraidtouscwhitespace.Whitespacerclicvcscyefatigueand

looksmoreattractive.

Optional fonts

ManyoptionalfontsavailableforyourStarLaserPrinter8 complementits internalfonts.Thesecangive youmorevarietyinsymbolsets,spacing,font height,styleand strokeweight.To yourCourierorTmsRomn fonts,for example,youmightadditalicsandbold,legalormathsymbolsets,andsizes rangingfrom7 to 14points.

Optionalfonts offerdifferenttypefacestoo.AskyourStarMicronicsdealer aboutcartridgesordisksforthefollowing:

Helvet linedrawingfonts LetterGothic presentationfonts

Barcodes opticalcharacter~ader fonts

universalproductcode

Using cartridge fonts

To gainaccessto afonton acartridge:

1)presstheON LINE buttonto puttheprinteroffline,

2) slidethecartridgeyouwantintooneofthecartridgeslotsonthefront of theprinter,

3)pressthe ON LINE buttonto puttheprinterbackonline,

4) useeitherthefrontpanelmenuoracommandfromyourcomputerto selectthe fontyouwant(explainedfor eachemulationin following chapters).

Note: Do notinsertorpullcartridgesoutoftheprinterwhiletheprinteris

online. Youcan use fontsfrombothcartridgeslotswithinonedocument. A coupleof intcrcslingnotesaboutdefaultcartridgefonts:First, say you

haveselcctcdonthefrontpanel menua cartridgefontasyourdefaultfont. Lateryouturnofftheprinter.Ifyouslipthecartridgebackinbeforeyouturn on theprinteragain,thatfontwillstillbeyourdefaultfont.

Second,somecartridgescontaintheirowndefaultfont.Thatmeansassoon as you slidesuch a cartridgeintotheprinter,thatcartridge’sdefaultfont becomes the printer’s new default font automatically.To change the printer’sdefaultfromthatonthecartridgeyoumustselectanotherfontfrom the frontpanel.

How to download fonts

To downloadfontsfromcomputerdiskyou’llneedmomthana small64K microcomputer.Werecommendatleasta 512Kcomputerwithacoupleof diskdrives(aharddiskis better).

Many commercialfont-managementprogramsare now on the market,

including Insight Development’sL.userControl,Blaha Software’s Hot

Lead, SoftCraft’sLuserFonts,and the PCLprinter driverin Microsoft’s

Windows.Theseutilityprogramshelp you downloadfonts,then let you

accessthefontsautomaticallyfromyourwordprocessororotherprograms. Mostfont files on disk that youbuy to downloadinto your printerhave

Escapesequencesrightin thefile,whichsimplifytheprocess.Usuallyall youhaveto do is copy the file from yourcomputerinto yourprinter(in LaserJet11modeyoumustassignafontIDnumberfirst).Ifyoudownload fontswiththe MS-DOS COPYutility,makesuretouse theCOPY/Boption. Thatwillkeepyour computerfrom“interpreting”thedatayousend,which sometimesproducesbadlyshapedcharacters.

OK,let’slookat a coupleof examples.

Downloading a font: example one

Exampleoncis fora computerrunningjust MS-DOS. Sayyou’veboughtHewlett-Packard’sCenturySchoolbookfontsandwant

to downloadtheregular(upright),italicsandboldfacecharacters.The HP disk Iabels for each tile are CN1OORPN.R8P,CNIOOIPN.R8Pand CN1OOBPN.R8P.Incaseyou’reinterested,that’sHP’scodefor CeNtury,

100dccipoints,Regular(orItalicor Bold),ProportioNal,Roman-8symbol

set,Portrait. One of the disks you get also contains a batch tile named

DOWNLOAD.BAT.To load the regularuprightfont you makesure the printerisonline, then afteryourcomputer’sA>promptyoutype:

DOWNLOADCN1OORPN.R8P

WhentheprogramasksforthefontIDnumberyoukeyinanumberbetween Oand32767.ThenwhentheprogramaskswhetheryouwantLhefontstored permanentlyor temporarilyyou type either P or T (a tcmporary font disappearsif youpresstheprinter’sRESET button).Finallytheprogram asksif youwantto printa sampleof thefontandyoureplyY or N forycs or no.

Youthendo thesamefortheitalicsandboldfacefiles,forexampletyping fortheitalicsfont:

DOWNLOADCN1OOIPN.R8P

Thepromptswillbethesame,butyouhavetoremcmbertouscdifferentfont

IDnumbersfortheupright, italicandboldfacefonts.

Downloading a font: example two

Exampletwo is for a computerrunning AldusCorporation’sPageMaker desktoppublishingprogramwithMicrosoftWindows.

PageMaker providesa print dnvcr called HPPCL.DRV,and a program calledPCLPFM.EXEwhichcrcatcsthedatait needstoprintagivenfont. TocreatefontdataforyourCenturySchoolbookfonts,attheA>promptyou type:

PCLPFMCNIOO*.R8P

Theastc&k, a“wildcardcharacter,”indicatesthatPCLPFMisto createa datatileforallthreefonts—regular,italicsandbold.Theprogramasksif

youwanttocreateafilecalledAPPNDWIN.INItoappendintotheWindows fontmenutile:typeY foryes.

AfterPCLPFMhasmade thefontdatafile,withyourwordprocessoropen theWindowsfilecalled WIN.INIandkeyinthefontdefaultsyouwantto

apply. At the section refcrnng to the HPPCLprinter driver, insert the

APPNDWIN.INIfileyoucrcatcdearlier. That’sit!Fromnowon yourCenturySchoolbookfontswillappearon the

print menusof all yourWindowsapplications. Withbothexamples, how youusc theformdependson yourapplications

software.As youknow,sendingcommandsto changefontswillprobably requiresomeexperimenting:bepatient.Thesecommandsaredescribedin thefollowingfourchapters.

The process of downloading a font you’vedesignedyourself is not so

straightforward.AsyoucanonlydothisinHPLaserJet11mode,creatingand

downloadingfonts is dcscribcdfurtherin chapter4.

Hints: Managing memory

●

✎

Piintingfancy stuffcanbequitecumbersomeforyourprinter.Youtrade offfancinessagainstspeed:ifyouoptforfewerflourishes,yougive your printerbreathingroom in memory.And that rewardsyou with faster output.Anyof thefollowingwillslowdownyourlaserprinter:

- textover20points,

- lotsof linesorpatterns,

- graphics,

- macros,

-justifiedtext. YoumaychoosetoaddanoptionalRAMboardtoyourStarLaserPnnler

8 if youneedto downloadmanyfonts. Altcmatively,consider either a softwareor hardwareprint

spooler if

printingholdsupyourcomputermorcthanyou’dlike.Aspoolerprovides

a separatetemporarymcmory space that holds the documents10bc

pnntcd,andis particularlyhandyin a multi-usersystem.

Some page makeup programs automaticallydownload each font as needed,thenflushthatfontfromprintermemorytomakeroomfor the next font.This approachcan makegood senseif you’resharingyour printerwith otherpeoplein a computernetwork.It keepsthe pnntcr’s

RAMfrombecomingoverloaded.However,thedownloadingtimecan

sigriificantlyslowdownyourprinter’sthroughput.

Moretypically,youwilldownloadafontinthemorning(perhapswiththe MS-DOSCOPYcommand)beforeyou printyourfirstdocument,and

that font will then stay in the printer’smemory.If you use a single

downloadedfont(or macro)throughoutthe day, you will findit most

efficientto keepit in thelaserprinter’smemory.Youdefinitelyshould

downloadfontsthis wayifyouuseaprintspooler.Ifyou’reinanc[work,

however,makesureyoudon’tdownloadduplicatefonts.

Howmanydownloadablefontscanyouhave inonedocument?That’snot

so easyto answer.Mostof yourlaserprinter’smemoryisnot available

for storingfonts,becauseit hasto storeeachpagebeforeprintingit, as

WC1las anymacrosor overlaysyouareusing.

To see how much memoryis availablefor extra fonts,put the printer offlineandpress theTESTbuttontoprintastatussheet.Yourprinterwill beepand showa front-panelmessageif youtryto overloaditsmemory by downloadingtoomanyfonts.It then willcontinueprintingwiththe closestavailablefontto thatrequested.

Asageneralrule,youcanincludeatleastadozendowrdoadablcfontsin adocument.Addedtotheinternalfonts,thatshouldbeplenty—itdoesn’t

make good design sense to mix many typefaces.A telltale sign of

amateurishlaserprintingis toomanyfontsin onedocument.

To keep a widevarietyof extra fontsin memory, however,manyStar LascrPrintcr8users(especiallythosesharingthe printeron anetwork) preferto addtheoptionalboardwiththesecondmegabyteof RAM.

TheHewlett-PackardLaserJetseriesIIisanearlierkindoflaserprinterthan

yourStarLaserPrinter8.Youshouldhavenotroublerunningmostpopular softwarepackagesinHPLaserJetIImode,asthoseprogramslikelycansend LaserJet11commands.

BecausetheLaserJetII

isalaserprinter,though,itscommandscangiveyou

morecontroloveryourStarLaserPrinter8 thanis possiblewiththeother built-incommand sets.Youwillprobablyusethisemulation’scommands morethanthe others. Recognizingthatreality,we’veputmoreexamples intothischapter.

Wefollowthe samesequenceinthischapteras wedid in Chapter2: first

some printer managementand page setup commands,then we’ll cover commandsthatpoisethelaser“pen” overthepaper, nextwe’llpick afont,

andfinallywe’lllaydownourwordsandpictures. Attheendofthechapterwedescribehowtocreateanduseyourownfonts,

andalsohow to sav~timeby writingcommand

HP LASERJET II COMMANDS

What do LaserJet

II commands

macros.

look like?

The LaserJet11emulationmodeincludesa dozencommoncontrolcodes (suchas<CR>forcarnagereturns)andsingle-characterEscapesequences (such as cESD E for resettingtheprinter).But all the other LaserJetII emulationcommandsyoucan‘sendyourStarLaserPrinter8looklikethis:

<ESC>ccn C

in whichthecc prefixis a symbolor two showingthegeneralcategoryof commandstowhichthisonebelongs,n issomevariableyouwanttousein thiscommand,andC is the specificcommandyouwantperformed.

TwoimportantdetailsmakeLaserJetIIcommandsdifferentfromtheother

printeremulations.First,all Escapesequencesendwitha capitalletter.If youdon’tmake thelastcharacteruppercase,yourprinterwon’tknowwhen

theEscapesequenceendsandwilltreatfollowingcharactersas partof the

samecommand. Second,inLaserJetIIcommandseachnumbcrorcharacteryouputafter the

cESC>codeisanactualASCIIsymbol.Withtheothcremulations,usually

any number you put after an <ESC>code identifiesa characterin that

positionin the ASCIItable.

Forexample,theLaserJet11commandthatsetstherightmargintocolumn

65 is:

<ESC>&a 65M

whichyouwouldcodein BASICas:

10 LPRINTCHR$(

27 ) ; “&a65M”

That commandsends your printer the symbols “6” and “5,” which its LaserJet11programinterpretsasthecolumnnumber.

Howcvcrifyou wereusingEpsonEX-800emulation,the commandthatsets therightmarginlooks likethis:

<ESC>Q 65

whichin BASICyouwouldwritethisway:

iO LPRINTCHR$(27) ;“Q”;CHR$(65)

Thatcommandsendsthepnntcrwhatevercharacterhappenstobein ASCII

position65. Yourprinter’sEpsonProgram,though,interpretsit onlyas a

decimalnumber meaningcolumn65.

Combining Escape sequences

Laterin thischapterwedescribeone waytoselect a font,byjust specifying

whatfontattributesyouwant,suchasboldorproportionalspacing.Ifyou selectafontbyspecifyingeveryoneofitsattributes,youcanbecertainthat you’reselectingsuccessfully.Butitcouldmeanafairbitofrepetitivetyping

eachtimeyouchoose a font.Thisappliesto othercommandstoo,notjust

fontselection.

Here’s a way you can save yourself a few keystrokes:type in those commandsthathavethe samecommand-categoryprefix asjust one long Escapescquencc.To combinecommandsthis way, typethe <ESC>and command-categoryprefixjust once,andcapitalizeonlythelastcommand character.

Forexample,todefinethestyle,weightandcharacterfacefortheprimary font,youmightsendthesecommand:

<ESC>

(S 1S

<ESC>

(S 7B

<ESC>

(S 5T

whichwouldproduceitalicsboklface

TmsRomn. But thissinglecommand

doesthe samething,allwithoncblow:

<ESC>

(S IS 7b ST

CONTROLLING THE PRINTER

Self test

Youcan checkhow yourLaserPrinter8 is printingandhavea look at its

parametersettingsby sendingthisSelfTestcommand:

<ESC>

Noticethatthezislowercase;thisistheonlyLaserJetIIcommandthatends with~smallletter.Afteryousenda SelfTestcommand,thepnntcrfinishes printinganypagesleftinitsmemory.Thenonanewpageitprintsitscurrent parameters(just importantitemssuchasnumberofcopiesandfontsinuse). The printer finishes off the page with a continuousdisplay of all the charactersin itsdefaultfont.

Theprinteralsoquicklychecksitsinterface.Assumingit findsno trouble, theprinter is thenreadyforyour nextpage.If theprinterdetectsaproblcm it shows a front panel message, which you can look up in your Star

LaserPrinter8 OperationsManual.

Set number of copies

Youcan printup to 99 copiesof eachof thepagesyou sendto theprinter. Youmaysendthiscommandanywherewithinthetextonapage;itwillstay in effect for that and all subsequentpages until you send anothersuch command:

<ESC>&!n X

Allyouhaveto do is changethe n signinthiscommandto thenumberof pagesyouwant.(The!characterafterthe&is a lowercaseL.)

Set feed se/ection

Onethingyoucandoisprintdirectlyonenvelopesaswellasregularpaper. Youusethis FeedSelectcommandtotellyour printertoselecteitherapage fromthepapertray,or a pageorenvelopefromthemanualfeed slot:

<ESC>&tn H

For n enteroneof thenumbersfromthistable:

FEEDSELECTED

O(zero)theprinteronlyejects the currentpage

1(one) thepnntertakes itsnextpagefmmthepapercassette(upper

cassettefor thedual-cassettetype)

theprintertakesa regularpagemanually 3’ theprinteracceptsan envelopeyoufeedin manually 4

theprintertakes itsnextpagefromthelowerpapercassette 6 theprinteracceptsanenvelopefromtheoptionalenvelope

feeder

Shouldan unprintedpagebe in theprinter’smemorywhenyougivethis command,thepaperforthatpagewill feedfromwhereyou’veindicated.

Thereforeyou can makethis thelast commandon a page.The new feed

settingstaysin operationuntilyouchangeit.

Reset

Mostsoftwarepackagesautomaticallyresettheprintertothe initialdefaults beforestartingaprintjob.It’sagoodideaforyoutofollowthesamepractice,

just to makesureyougetthesettingsyouwant.

Whenyouwanttosetallyourlaserprinter’sparametersbacktotheirinitial defaultvalues(somepeoplecall this “initializing”theprinter),send this command:

<ESC>E

Theprinterwillfinishprintinganypagesleftinitsmemorybeforeresetting the parametem.Resetting clears unneededtemporary fonts from your

printer’smemory.Anypermanentfontsor macrosyouhavedownloaded, however,will stillbethereafteryousendareset command.Permanentand temporaryfonts are describedat the end of this chapter’s“Controlling Fonts”section.

Example: Printer controls

Let’sseewhathappenswhenweputthesecommandstogether.Sayyouhave

just turnedon yourlaserprinterandselectedLaserJet11emulationonthe

frontpanel.Whathappenswhenyousendthefollowingcommandstoyour printer?

<ESC>

<ESC>E <ESC>&t’2h2X

As a BASICprogramthesewouldlook like this:

<NEW

WIDTH “LPT1 : “ ,255

20 LPRINT CHR$( 27 ) ; “

Z “

30 LPRINTCHR$(27) ; “E” 40 LPRINTCHR$(27) ;“&12h2X” RUN

First, if it is workingproperlythe printerprintsa test print with all the charactersin itsdefaultfontforthisemulation(Courier).

Next theprintersetsallitsparametervalues—includingfeedselectionand

numberof copies—to theirinitialsettings.

Thelastcommanddoestwothings:ittellstheprintertoacceptpaperyouwill

feedin yourself,andtoprinteachpagetwotimes.Thisis handywhenyou wanttwo copiesof a letteron preprintedletterhead.

Youcan now sendyourletterfromyourwordprocessingprogram to the printerandfeedinthosepages.Whenyou’redone,youmaywanttosendthe <ESC>E commandonemoretime.

PAGE ORIENTATION

Youmightreasonablythink of pageorientationasa pageformattingissue. Toprintwordswidthwiseonapage,however,eachletterineffecthastolie onitsback.Soorientationisactuallyafontattribute,and is treatedassuch lateron in thischapter.

Page Length

Thepapertrayyouhaveinstalledsetsthedefaultpagesize for yourlaser printer.Whenyouwantadifferentsize,andwhenyouchangethetray,you’ll need to reset that page size. You shouldalwayschangethe page length be~oreyou send text for printing.The Page Length commandsets the numberoflines thatcanprint on apage(linesperinchtimesthenumberof inches).

ThePageLengthcommandformatis:

<ESC>&/n P

wheren isthenumberoftextlinesonthepage;itcanbeanynumberbetween 5 and 128.

Thedefaultnumberof linesisthelengthof thepapertraytimes6 linesper inch.For 11-inchlener-sizepaperthatworksoutto66lines(that’salsothe defaultwhenyouhaven’tputin a tray).

If you don’t want the defaultlength,you shouldsend the Page Length commandbejbreyousendtext forpnnting.Thetablebelowshouldhelpyou

picktheright numberoflines.Decidewhichorientationandpapersizeyou want,thenuscthen underyourpreferredlines/inch:

If you havesetthe paperfeederfromthe frontpanelto “AUTOSELEC-

TION”,a“selectpagelength”command(<ESO&tn P) willautomatically

selectthecassettewhichcontainsthepaperselectedbythecommand.Ifno cassettecurrentlycontainstherightsizeof paper,thedisplaywillaskyou to inserttheappropriatesizeof paper.

ORIENTATIONPAPERSIZE

6 LINESilNCH n @ 8 LINES/tNCH

Portrait Portrait Portrait Portrait Landscape Landscape Landscape Landscape

Executive

Letter

A4 Legat Executive

Letter

Legat

60 66

84 43 51 49

80 88

112 58 68 66 58

* Printinglandscapesonlegalpaperis trickier.First seton portraitmode

andsendthecommand<ESC>&t’84Pandthenchangethe orientationto landscape.

Anexample:Sayyouwanttomanuallyprintlegal-sizepagesateightlines perinch.The followingcommandscombinemanualfeedingwiththatpage length:

<ESC>&t’2h112P

Ifyourcommandspecifiesapagelengthdifferentthanthepaperinthetray,

theprinterwill go offlineanddisplayamessageasking for thepropertray.

Afteryouchangethetray,presstheON LINE button to restarttheprinter.

Itdoesn’thurttoprintshort pagesonlongpaper.If youinadvertentlyprint

a Iegal:sizepageontoexecutiveor letter-sizepaper,theprinterwillscroll thatpageacrosstwosheets.

Also,thePageLengthcommandputsallmarginsbacktotheirdefaults.So

after you send it, check whetheryou have to send any of the following margin-settingcommands.

Side margins

Marginsettingsdefinethatpart.ofthepageonwhichtheprintercanprint.

Yousetsidemargins to particularcoh.wv.zs.The widthof acolumndiffers

foreachfont,dependingonits pitch.Ten-pitchCourier,forexample,puts

column30 threeinchesfromtheleftedgeof thepage(columnO).But 12pitchPrestigeEliteputscolumn30just twoanda halfinchesin.

Youcannotsettheleft marginfurtheroverthantherightmargin.Usethe followingcommandtosettheleftmargin,settingntobethecolumnnumber

whereyouwanttheleftmargintostart:

<ESC>&a n L

Similarly,tosettherightmargin,yousendIhiscommandwithyourdesired columnnurnbcr:

<ESC>&a n M

Ifyouwanttoputbothleftandright marginsbacktotheprinter’sprintable limits—inotherwords,to“clear”thesidemargins—sendthiscommand:

<ESC> 9

Top margin

Vertically,theLaserPrinter8confinesitsprintingtoits“textlength,”which shouldalwaysbelessthanitspage length.Botharemeasuredinlines.You canchangethemeaningof a“line” withline-spacingcommandsdescribed laterin thischapter.

Whenyou set the top marginthough,it doesnotchange,evenwhenyou

changethe definitionof a line.You can usethis commandto set the top marginanytime.Justbcawarethat ifthecurrentprintpositionisbelowyour margin,you’llhavetomovetheprintpositionbackup.Naturally,youhave to keepyourtop margininsidethepage-lengthlimit.

Usethiscommandtosetthetopmargin,settingn tobcthenumberoflines down from the top of the page thatyou wantleft blankbeforeyou start printing:

<ESC>&t’nE

Notethatthecharacterfollowingthe“&”is a lowercase“L”.

Text length and the bottom margin

By default, the LaserPrinter8 automaticallygives you top and bottom margins of the same size. So you only need to send the Text Length commandwhenyouwantdifferenttop andbottommargins.

Ifyouwantadifferentbottommargin,firstdecidehowmanytextlineswill producethe marginyou want. Checkthatthey won’tproducea bottom marginlowerthan thepagelength. Then sendthe followingText Length command,enteringforn yourdesirednumberof lines:

<ESC>&t’tzF

ThePageLength,TopMarginandTextLengthcommandsthereforework togetherto setthebottommargin:

bottommargin= pagelength - (topmargin+ textlength). Thebottommarginiscalledthe“perforationregion”withprintemthatuse

continuousforms.Younormallywanttoskiptheperforationsbetweenthe continuouspages,but sometimesyoudon’t(forexamplewhenyou print

labels). Thoughyoulikely won’toftenwanttodo it,theStarLaserPrinter8willlet

youcompletelyignorethebottommargintoo.If youchoosetoprintbelow thebottommargin,rememberthatyoumightlosewordsorgraphicsinthe unprintableregionattheedgeof thepage.Thecommandlookslikethis:

<ESC>&tn L

Ifyouwantto allowprintingbelowthebottommargin,forn enterO(zero). Butif you wantto forbidprintingbelowthe margin,whichis thedefault,

enter 1(one). In Laserjetmode,you can tell the printer whetheryou want to print in

simplexorduplexmode,andalsotodefineshort-orlong-egeprinting.The commandtodo thisis:

<ESC>&/’/zS

(notethatthe characterfollowingthe“&”is a lowercase“L”),andn is an ASCIInumberwhichmaybeeither’’O”,“l’’or’’2”.Ifnis“O”,simplexmode willbeselectedforthenextpagetobeprinted.Ifnis”1”or“2”,thenduplex modewillbeselectedforthenextpage —” 1“selectinglong-edgebinding, and“2” selectingshort-edgebinding(regardlessofpageorientation).Any othervalueswillbeignored.

Page Side Selection (DX type only)

The followingcommandallowsyouto selecton what side of a pagethe

followingdatawillbeprinted-whentheprinteris induplexmode:

<ESC>&a n G

wherenisanASCIIvaluefrom“O”to“3”.If nis“O”,thefollowingdata will

beprinted on thenextsideafterthe currentside(ifthecurrentsideisa face

side,thenextsidewillbe aback,andviceversa).If n is” l“, thenextside willautomaticallybecomea faceside(ifthecurrentsideisa faceside,the currentpagewillbeejectedwiththebacksideblank).If n is setto “2”,the nextsidewillautomaticallybecomeabackside(ifthecurrentsideisaback side,thenextpagewillbeprintedwiththefacesideblank).

Example: Page formatting

OK,let’s haveago atformattingapage.Thepictureofthepagewewantis

just below.Theactual widthofthetextonthepagedependson whichfont

weuse.Let’splanonusingour 16.66-pitchLinePrinterfontateightlines perinch.

column10

column70

top margin= 8 lines

texr length.

100lines

bonom

margin

4 lines

{

,,,,

,,.,

pegs length = 112 ines

\ cccaeiordfootnotes

Asitprints,wealsowanttopermittheoccasionalone-linefootnotebelow thenormalbottommargin.Andwhenwe’refinishedprinting,let’sresetthe sidemarginssowe canswitchto ourusualfontwidth.

Hereare thecommandsthatwillproducethisformatforus:

<ESC>&tl 12P <ESC>&a IOt’70M <ESC>&t’8eIOOfOL

(We’llsendourpagehere.) <ESC>9

MOVING THE PRINT POSITION

Many ways to move

The LaserPrinter8 providesexcellentcontrolover the print position—

whereyoupoiseyourlaser“pen”.Horizontally,youcansendbackspaceand carriagereturncommands.Vertically,youcanmovetheprintpositiondown thepagebyprintingsomanylinesperinch,orbysendingline-feedandhalf line-feedcommands.Youcanmovehorizontallyorverticallytotabsettings as well.

Thosearen’tall.Youcan alsotelltheStarLaserPnntcr8 to moveitsprint position,eitherverticallyor horizontally,in incrementsof:

1/10,1/12or 3/50inch(pitchsettings), 1/48or 1/120inch(lineor columndefinitions),

<1/300inch(dots),

1/720inch(tenths of a point). Allthesecommandsaredescribedbelow. Onehintabout movingtheprintposition:youcanconfuseyourselftrying

to usc more than two differentunits duringthe same session.So decide beforehandhowpreciseyouneed to be in movingthe printposition,not

forgettinganygraphicsyouwantto include.Thenstickto theunit(s)you

choose.

Lines per inch

Thisverticalline-spacingcommandgivesyoumoreoptionsthanjustthesix

oreight linesperinchofearlyprinters.Usethiscommandto sethowmany linesyouwantin eachverticalinchof yourpage:

<ESC>&tn D

Forn youenterthenumberoflinesperinchyouwant—anyof: 1,2,3,4, 6,8, 12,16,24or48. If you enteranumberotherthanthesetheprinterwill ignorethecommand.

Defining the space and column

Beforeyouuseprintpositioningcommands,youfirstmaywantto change thedefinitionsofthelineorspace(sometimescalled“verticalandhorizontal motionindexes,”VMIandHMI).Thesedefinitionsdon’tactuallymovethe print position.Instead,they definetwo basic units you can use in print positioncommands.

What’simportantaboutthespaceisthatitdefineshowfartheprintposition travelsforeverycharacteryouprint(exceptforproportionallyspacedtext). Thespacecanalsobethoughtofasthewidthofaverticalprintcolumn.One columnwidthisthewidthofthespacecharacterinthecurrentfont,nomatter whetherit is monospacedorproportionallyspaced.

Occasionallyyou maywantto changespacewidthto overridethecurrent pitchsetting. Let’slookatanexample.Thespacewidthcomesin unitsof

l/120thofaninch,andtheCourierfontcanprintIOcharacterspcrinch.Each charactercovers a tenth— 12/120the of an inch, so that font’sdefault spacewidthis 12units.If we changeits spacewidthto 6, each character wouldhalf-overlaptheonebeforeit.

If youareusing<S1>and<SO>toshiftbetweenaprimaryandsecondary font,it’sa goodideato changethespacewidthaftereveryshift.

To changethe spacewidthyousendthiscommand:

<ESC>&k n H

inwhich fornyoucanenteranumberfromO(zero)to840. AwidthofOwill printcharactersontopof eachother;a widthof 840willprintthemseven inchesaprt.

Defining line depth

Thelinedepth(sometimescalledthe“verticalmotionindex”)specifieshow fardownapagethe printpositionwillmoveforeachlinefeed.Youprobably won’tusethelinedepthasmuchaslines-per-inch.Line depthcanbemore precisebutitisn’taseasytocalculate.Thelinedepthcomesinmultiplesof

l/48thof an inch.

Theimportantfactaboutthelinedepthisthatwhenyouchangeit youare

changingtheactual meaningof a “line”.

Whenyouincreasethelinedepth youeffectivelydecreasethenumberoflinesperinch,andincreasethepage length.

Thecommandyousendtosetthelinedepthlookslikethis:

<ESC>&?nC

(notethatthecharacterafterthe “&”isalower-case“L”)inwhichfornyou canenteranumberfromOto336.Ifn iszero,lineswillbeprintedontopof eachother,andif 336,theywillbeprinted7 inchesapart.

Moving the PRINT position horizontally

Youcan usethreedifferentunitsto movethe print positionhorizontally: columns(space-widths),dots(eachl/300thofaninch),ortenthsofapoint (decipoints).Bothcolumnsanddecipointscanbe fractionsto twodecimal places, such as 45.75 dccipoints—which provides a great degree of accuracyfor graphicsapplications.

Moreover,foreachoftheseyoucanmovetheprintpositionhorizontallyin twoways.Youcanmove absolutelyfromtheleftedgeofthepage.Oryou canmoverelatively,awayfromthecurrentprintposition.Toshowyouwant tomove awayfromthecurrentprintposition,youputaplus(+)orminus(–) signbeforethenumberof unitsyouwanttomove.

Ifyou send acommandthatwouldputtheprint positionoutsideeitherside margin,theLaserPrinter8willletyoudojustthat.However,youcan’tsend theprint positionfurtherthanits printablelimitsattheedgesofthe page.

Horizontal moves: by columns, decipoints and

dots

To move the print positionhorizontallya numberof columns,send the command:

<ESC>&a n C

inwhichfornyouenterthenumberofcolumnsyouwishto movetheprint position. So to movetocolumn45yousendthecommand:

<ESC>&a45C

Buttomove45 columnstotherightofthecurrentprintposition,yousend:

<ESC>&a+45C

Tomove theprintpositionhorizontallyacertainnumbcrofdecipoints,send thecommand:

<ESC>&an H

inwhich fornyouenterthenumberofdecipointsyouwishtomovetheprint position(precededbya+or– signifyouwanttomoveawayfromthecurrent position).

Youcanmovetheprintpositionhorizontallybydotsboth waystoo.Youcan

moveanumberofdotsawayfromtheleftedgeofthepage,oryoucanmove

a numberof dotsawayfromthecurrentprintposition.

To movehorizontallythisway,sendthecommand:

<ESC>*pn X

in whichforn youputeitherthenumberofdotsawayfromthepageedge, or (precededby a + or – sign)the relativenumberof dotsaway fromthe currentposition.

Soto move20dotsfromtheleftedgeyousendthiscommand:

<ESC>*p20X

Andtomove20dotsto theleftof thecurrentpositionyousend:

<ESC>*p–20X

Youcanalsomovethecursor8columnsatatimehorizontallybyuscofthe horizontaltab command.Simplysendatabcharacter:

<HT>

to do this.Reversetabbingisnotpossible.

Moving the print position vertically

Youcan uscsimilarunitstomovetheprintpositionvertically:lines,dots, or decipoints.Bothlines and decipointscan be fractionsto two decimal places.

Youcanalsomovetheprintpositionabsolutelydownfromthetopedgeof thepage,orrelatively,awayfromthecurrentprintposition.Again,toshow youwant to moveawayfromthecurrentprintpositionyouputaplus(+)or

minus(–) signbeforethenumberofunitsyouwantto move.

The importantdifferenceaboutmovingverticallyup or down is whatthe printerdoeswhentheprintpositionhitsthepagetopor bottom.Ifyoutry to moveabovethetop margin,theprintposition staysrightat themargin. Andif youmovetheprintpositiondownoffthepage,thepageisejectedand printingcontinuesonthenextpage.

Verticalmoves: by lines, decipoints and dots

To movethe print position verticallya certainnumberof lines,send the command:

<ESC>&an R

in whichfor n youenterthe numberof lines you wishto movethe print position.Sotomoveto line45,measuredfromthctopedgcofthe page,you sendthe command:

<ESC>&a45R

Butto move45 linesdownfromthecurrentprintposition,yousend:

<ESC>&a+45C

Tomovetheprintpositionverticallyacertainnumbcrofdecipoints,sendthe command:

<ESC>&a n V

inwhichfornyou enterthenumberofdccipointsyouwishtomovetheprint positiondown(orprecedethe numberwitha +or– signifyouwanttomove up or downfromthecurrentposition).

Finally,youcanmoveanumberofdotsdownfromthetopedgeofthepage, oryoucanmoveanumberofdotsupordownfromthe currentprintposition. Tomovetheprintpositionupordownanabsoluteorrelativenumberofdots, sendthe command:

<ESC>*pn Y

inwhichfornyouputeithcrtheabsolutenumberofdotsdown,or(preccdcd by a + or – sign)the relativenumber of dots up or down fromthecurrent position.

Soto move20 dotsdownyousendthecommand:

<ESC>*p20Y

Andto move20dotsup yousend:

<ESC>*p–20Y

Combining move commands

Onethingaboutmovingtheprint positionwiththeabovecommandsisthat

theylet youthinkof yourpagein termsof Cartesiancoordinates. Allwemeanisthatyoucancombinehorizontalandverticalmovementsthat

usethesameunits.If yousendthiscommand,

<ESC>*p40x20Y

theprintpositionwillmovetoa spot40 dotsfromtheleftedgeofthepage and20 dotsdownfromthetopedge.Andif yousendthisone:

<ESC>&a+40h–20V

theprintpositionwillmoveright40 decipointsandup20 decipoints.

Backspace

TheBackspacecontrolcodeworksexactlyasyoumightexpect:itmovesthe printpositiononecolumnto the left.

<BS>

Movingtheprint positionbackdoesnotdestroyanycharactersalreadysent. In fact, because of that, this commandcan be quite useful. It lets you supcrimpow”onecharacteroveranother.

Sayyou’wanttoindicateablankspaceastheletter

b withaslash/ through

it,anoldprogrammingsymbol.Justsendthe

bandthenfollowitwith<BS>

andtheslash,andyougetthis:~.

Carriage return

TheCarriageRctumcommandbyitselfonlymovestheprintpositionback to theleftmarginof thelineon whichitcurrentlysits:

<CR>

If youwanttheprintpositionto movedownalineaswell,senda separate Line Feed command each time, or use Define AutomaticLine Ends

(explainedbelow)to couplethesetwo controlcodes.

Line feeds

LineFeedcommandadvancestheprintpositionone linedownthepage.

Themeaningof alineis setby theLineDepthcommand. To send a linefeedjust sendthiscontrolcode:

<LF>

The Half Line Feed commandis the one you want for subscripts.This commandmovestheprint positiondownthepageonehalfthecurrentline

depth:

<ESC>=

To send a reverseHalfLineFeed,movingtheprintpositionup to let you

printa superscript,uselhiscommand:

<ESC>&a–.5 R

Form feed

Thiscommand,likethePRINTbutton,makestheprinteradvancetoa new sheetofpaper.WhenyousendthecFF>controlcodeyouarcalsotellingthe printer to print all its stored page information.Rememberto send this commandtomakesureanylastpartial pageinyourprinter’smemorygets printed:

<FF>

Define automatic line endings

Whenyou pressthe CarnageReturnkeywhat do youexpectto happen? Mostpeoplethink acomputerkeyboardshouldworklikeatypewriter,with

a CarnageReturnstartinga newlineas well.

Butcomputerprogramsdon’thavetosticktothatanalogy.Someprograms (particularlygraphicspackages)wanta CarriageReturntojust movethe printpositionbackto theleftedgeofthepage.Andtheywanta LineFeed tomovedowntoanewlinewithoutgoingbacktothebeginningoftheline.

So youcanspecifyexactlyhowyouwant<CR>,<LF>and<FF>to work withthiscommand:

<ESC>&k n G

For n enteroneof thenumbersfromthistable:

AUTOMATICCOMMAND

O(zero)cCR>,cLF> and<FF>workaccordingtotheirbasic

definitions,

1(one) <CR> willalsogenerateacLF>(butcLF> and<FF>stay

thesame),

cLF> or <FF>willproducea<CR>too(<CR>by itself won’tchange),

<CR>generatesa<LF>too,andeither<LF>or <FF> producesa<CR>.

Afteryou sendthecommand<ESC>&k2 G forexample,everytimethe printergetsa Line Feedcommanditwillmovetheprintpositiondownand overto thestartof theline.when it getsa FormFeed,theprinter willalso movetheprintpositionbacktotheleft.

Autowrap

Onenicething wegetusedtowithawordprocessingprogramisnothaving to worryabout wordsgoingpastthe right margin.Wedon’thaveto listen forthattypewriterbellatthemarginanymore.

This commanddoes pretty much the same thing your word processing programdoes.Theimportantdifferenceisthatitdoesnotwrapwords.When

youturnon Autowrap,ifyou sendtoomanycharactersfora linethelaser

pnntcrprintstheoverflowonthenextline.

IfAutowrapison,whentheprintergetsacharacterthatwouldprint beyond

therightmargin,itreturnstheprintpositionforthatcharacterbacktotheleft

andone linedown(CarnageReturnandLineFeed).

TheAutowrapcommandworkslikea toggleswitch:

<ESC>

&S m C

If for n youenterO(zero)thenthiswrap-aroundmodewillapply. Butif forn youput 1(one)thisautomaticwrappingof characterswillnot

happen.Thedefaultif youdon’tsenda commandisno wrapping. Note: Even whenAutowrapis on,the printerwillprintbeyondthe right

margin if you have sent one of the direct positioningcommands describedabove,whichmovetheprintpositionpastthemargin.

Also,notethatAutowrapdoesn’tmovethewholeworddownto thenext line—that’sajob for a wordprocessor,notyourlaserprinter.

Pushing and popping the print position

Thisprovidesa wonderfulwayto keeptrackoftheprintposition.it works by lettingyoukeepalistof upto 20 printpositions.

Youcan“push”thecurrentprintpositionontothetopof thelistwhenever youwant.Later,youcan“pop”offwhateverpositionisatthetopofthelist,

makingitthecurrentprintposition.

When would you want to save and restore print positionsthis way? Wheneveryouneed tointerruptwhatyou’reprintingnowtosticksomething specialontothepage.Thisismosthandywhenyouneedtojumpfromtext to graphicsandback.

Sayyou’vewrittenoneroutinethatputsthepagenumberinthesameplace on.evcrypage, and anotherthat under certaincircumstancesprintstwo heavyIincs.Youprintmcrnly alonguntilyouhaveto printthelines.You thenpushthecurrentprintpositiontoexecutetheline-printingroutine.

Butpart waythroughthatyouhitthepage-numberspot.So you pushthe printpositionagainandrunthepage-numberroutine.Thenyoucanpopthe printpositiontoprintthesecondline.Andwhenthat’sdoneyoupopitagain to returnto printingtext.

As you mightsuspect,thiscan involvefairlycomplicatedprogramming, typicallyusing the macrocommandsdescribedlaterin thischapter.

To pushorpop a printpositionyousendthiscommand:

<ESC>&f n S

For n youenterOto push(save)thecurrentprintposition,

or 1to pop(restore)thelastpositionsavedoffthe list.

Note: The last positionpushedonto the list will alwaysbe the first onc

poppedbacklater.

CONTROLLING FONTS

Font selection

The LaserJetII emulationlets you defineand selectfontsthreeways: as primary and secondaryfonts, or by font identificationnumber, or by description.We’lllookatthefirsttwowaysnow,andexplainselectingafont

by itsattributesalittlefurtheron. Howeveryouchoosetorefertofonts,rememberthatafontmustbeavailable

beforeyouselectit.Soifyouwanttoselectacartridgeordownloadedfont, youfirst haveto putin thecartridgeor downloadthe font.

Selecting primary or secondary fonts

Ofthethreeselectionmethods,youwillsavethemostprogrammingtimeby

shifting back and forth between primary and secondaryfonts. That’s

counterbalanced,though,by the factthat you oftenneed more than two

fonts.

Typically,you use primary and secondaryfonts to flip back and forth

betweentwodifferentsymbolsets—forexampleIBMsymbolsets1and2. Youcandesignateanytwofonts,whetherinternal,cartridgeordownloaded, as primaryandsecondary.

The way you show you’re talking about a primary font in an Escape

sequenceis to follow the <ESC> symbol with a left parenthesis.For example,

<ESC>

(S 10H

meansyou want yourprimaryfont pitchedat ten charactersto the inch. Typinga rightparenthesisinsteadmeansyouarereferringtothesecondary font:

<ESC>

)S 10H

Youdefinea fontasprimaryorsecondaryas youselectit.Tomakea font

yourprimaryorsecondaryfont,youusefont-descriptionEscapesequences suchas thosejust above,specifyingtheattributesyouwant.

If youdon’texplicitlyindicatewhatattributesyouwantforthe primaryor secondary font, the printerwill use the same defaultfont for both.This defaultfont’sattributesincludetheRoman-8symbolset, 10-pitchspacing,

12-pointheight,uprightstyle,mediumweight,andCouriertypeface.

Afteryourprimaryfont isselected,youcanchooseitforprintingbysending thisShiftIn controlcode:

<S1> Alltic textyousendafterthatcommandwillprintin theprimaryfont. Yourlaserprintershifts to thesecondaryfontwhenyousendthisShiftOut

code:

<so>

Assigning font ID numbers

ThesecondwaytodctineandselectfontsisbyusingfontIDnumbers.You maypreferthismclhodifyoufrequentlyusemanyfonts.Whilenotasshort as<S1>and<SO>,it’squickerthandescribingfontattnbutcsoverandover again.

Togive an IDnumberto aninternalorcartridgefont,youfirstmakeit the primaryfont.Thatis,you sendaleft-parenthesisEscapesequence(a font attributecommandasdescribedbelow)andtheShiftIncontrolcode.Then, to assignan ID numberto thefont,yousendthiscommand:

<ESC>*cn D For n you can enter any numberbetweenOand 32767as the font’s ID

number.(Notthatyoucanhavemorethan64fontsintheprinteratonce,even with the optionalmemory board. A printer would need an elephantine memoiyto hold32767fonts!)

Selecting downloaded fonts

TheeasiestwaytoselectamongdownloadedfontsistousefontIDnumbers. Whenyoudownloadafontyoumake the AssignFontIDcommandabove

thefirstcommandinyoursequence(see“Howtodownloadyourownfonts” laterinthischapter).Afteryou’veassignedanIDnumberto adownloaded font, you can select it as your primary font with this Select Font ID command:

<ESC>( n X in whichn is yourdesiredfont’sIDnumber. If youusemanyfontsyou’llusethatcommandtoselectamongthem.But

whatif youprefertojust use<S1>or<SO>to shiftbetweenprimaryand

secondaryfonts?YouwanttoselectadownloadedfontIDasyoursecondary font.Thisis thecommandto send:

<ESC>) n X

Font attributes

Thethirdwayto selectafontistosimplydescribewhatfontattributesyou

want.(Remember,selectingafontdoesnotmodifyafont.Youcan’tgetbold

or14-pointcharactersifyoudon’thaveaboldor 14-pointfontintheprinter.)

Inlistingtheattributesyouwant,itwillhelpyoutoprioritizethemthesame wayyourLaserPrinter8does.Yourpnnterranksthevariousattributesafont can havethisway(frommosttoleastimportant):

orientation

symbolset

spacing(proportionalor monospaced)

pitch(charactersper inch)

fontheight(inpoints)

style(italic or upright)

strokeweight(lighttobold)

typeface

The laser printer just zips down this chain of attributes one by one, eliminatingfonts thatdon’tmatchwhatyouwant,untilit getsdowntoone uniquefontthatmatches yourrequest.Iftheprintermatchesdownto,say,

styleorweightbutcangonofurther,itwillgiveyouitsclosestfonttoyour request.

And if youdon’tspecifya particularvaluefor someattribute,the printer assumesyouwantthevaluethatattributehadinthe lastfontyouspecified (orthedefaultvalueifyou’vejustturnedontheprinter).Thiscansaveyou someeffort:ifthefontyouwanthasanattributethesameasthecurrentfont, youdon’thaveto specifythatattributeagain.

Orientation

Portrait orientationprints text across the width of a page. Landscape orientationprintstextsidewaysupthelengthofa page.

The StarLaserPrinter8 ismoreflexibleaboutorientationthanmostother laser printers; it lets you simplyrotateany portraitfont to the landscape

orientationorviceversa.Tostartyouoffwhenyouchangeorientation,the printerresets all its marginsand its columnand line definitionsto their

defaultsettings. Whenyouwantto selecttheoppositeorientation,sendthiscommand:

<ESC>&tn O

in whichfor n youput Oto getportraitorientation,

or 1to getlandscapeorientation.

(Notice:the/characterafterthe&is a lowercaseL.)

Symbol sets: a review

Eachfontcanhavemanysymbolsets,eachbeingasubsetofallthepossible charactersof the font. These subgroupsinclude different symbols for different nationsor for lawyers or artists or mathematicians.Any two

symbol sets, moreover,may store the same symbol at a differentfont positionin theprinter’smcmory.

ThedefaultLaserJetIIemulationsymbolsetisRoman-8,whichincludesall

ASCIIcharactersplusdozensofaccentedletters.Butyoucanuseanyofthe sets shown below. Technicallyyou can pair any symbol set with any internal,cartridgeordownloadedfont;howeveritdocsn’tmakemuchsense to printtextwitha mathor line-drawingsymbolset.

LaserJetHmode providestwo differentsymbolsetcommands.Youput a codeintoonecommandto selectaparticularsymbolsetforyourprimary orsecondaryfont.YouU.SCtheothercommandtoselectthecurrentordefault

symbolset foryourprimaryorsecondaryfont.

Selecting a symbol set

Thisfirstsymbolsetcommandletsyouselectaparticularsymbolsetforthe current font. To select a symbol set for your primary font, send this command:

<ESC>( n

Forn enteroneofthefollowingsymbolcodes.Thefirstcharactermustbe a digit andthe secondan uppercaseletter.

CODEn

SYMBOLSET

Math-7symbols

LineDrawcharacters

1S0 60:Norwegian

RomanExtension

1S0 25:French

HPGerman

01 OK ON 00 OQ 0s Ou

ID IE IF IG 10

IQ 1s

2K 2Q 2s 2U

3s 4s 5s , 6S

‘8Q

8Y 9Q

10U 1lQ 1IU 12U 15U

1S0 15:Italian JIS ASCII ECMA~94Latin 1 OCR-A Math-8Asymbols 1S0 11:Swedish

US-ASCII

BarCode3 of9

1S0 61:Norwegian 1S0 UK 1S0 69:French 1S0 21:German OCR-B Math-8Bsymbols HP Spanish Legal 1S0 57:Chinese Pi font-Asymbols 1S0 17:Spanish 1S0 IRV OCR-BExtension 1S0 10:Swedish 1S0 16: Portuguese 1S0 84:Portuguese 1S0 85:Spanish Math-8symbols IBM-PCSet Roman-8 BarCodeEAN/UPC IBM-PCExtension IBM-PC(US) ECMA-947Bit IBM-PC(Denrnark/Nonvay) PC-850 Pi fontsymbols

To selecta symbolsetcodeforyoursecondaryfont,fliptheparenthesis:

<ESC>) n

andfor n substituteyourchoicefromthecodesabove. 74

Selecting the current or default symbol set

Yourprintercan useeithertheprimaryorthesecondaryfontas itscurrent font. And that currentfont has its currentsymbolset. Your printeralso remembemitsdefaultfontandsymbolset,whichareCourierwithRoman8 (unlessyou’vechangedtheirinitialparametervaluesthroughthe front panelmenu).

The followingcommandlets youselectoneof thosesymbolsetsfor your primaryfont.

<ESC>( n @

For n enteroneofthe followingselectionvaluesforyourprimaryfont:

n VALUE

SELECTION

O(zero)or 1(one)

Selectsthedefaultsymbolset

Selectsthecurrent font’ssymbolset(this forcesthe printertoselectits bestmatching font)

Selectsallof thedefaultfont’sattributes (notjust symbolset)

Similarly,youcanselecteitherthedefaultorthecurrentsymbolsetforyour secondaryfont. You alsomay want to use the same symbolset for both

primaryandsecondaryfonts. To do thesetasks,you can send the followingcommandto select which

symbolset youwantfor yoursecondaryfont:

<ESC>) n @

For n enteroncofthevaluesfromthistable:

n VALUE

SELECTION

O(zero) Selectsthedefaultsymbolset

1(one) Selectssamesymbol set as primaryfont

Selects’thecurrentfont’ssymbolset

3 Selectsall the default font’s attributes(notjust

symbolset)

Example: Symbol set commands

Let’stakeashortlookathowyouusethesecommands.Here’sthescenario:

YouarealreadyusingtheTmsRomntypeface,butwanttousetheGerman symbolsetasyouarewritingareportforyourBerlinofficeandneedumlaut charactersforseveralnamesin thereport.

Thenin thereportyoudecidetouseaproprietaryproductname,so wantto nipouttograbthe@symbolonalegalcartridgefontyou’vealreadyloaded, thenreturnto yourGermanset.Whenyourreport’salldone,youwantto returntheprinterto itsRoman-8default.

Herearc thecommandsthatwilldo thejob forus:

<ESC>( OG

(youstartyourreporthere)

~ESC>( IU @

<ESC>( OG

(youfinishyourreporthere)

<ESC>( O@

Ifyouhadfinishedwith<ESC>(3@theprinterwouldreturntoitsstandard Courierfont:not just itsRoman-8symbol set.

Spacing

If youspecifymonospaccdfor a font,eachcharacterprintswiththe same width.Butif youspecifyproportionalspacingthedesignof eachcharacter determinesits width.To definehowyou wantyourprimaryfont spaced, sendthiscommand:

<ESC>

(S /z P

in whichforn youput O(zero)toget monospaced,

or 1(one)to getproportionalspacing.

Ifyouspecifyproportionalspacingitdoesn’tmatterifyoualsospecifypitch,

becausespacingisa.higherpnorityfontattribute.Theprinterwilljustignore

thepitchrequest.

To definespacingfor yoursecondaryfont,usethe samenumbersandjust

fliplheparenthesis:

<ESC>

)S ~ P

Pitch

Pitchdefineshowmanycharactersper inchyou wantfor a monospaced-

pitchfont.Your StarLascrPrinter8‘sinternalmonospaccd-pitchfontshave settingsof 10, 12or 16.66charactersper inch. Cartridgeor downloaded fontswithmonospaccdpitchesoftenhaveothersettingsforcharactersper inch.

To selectthepitchyouwantfortheprimaryfont,sendthiscommand:

<ESC>

(S ~ H

wherefornyouput inhowmanycharactersperinchyouwant.Forexample, <ESC>(s 12H willpacktwelve charactersintoeachinch.

Thecorrespondingpitchcommandforthe secondaryfontis:

<ESC>

)S ~ H

Youcanuscadifferentcommandinsteadoftheseforgcncralcharacterpitch setting.Thiscommand,sinceitdoesn’thaveparentheses,coversboththe primaryandsecondaryfonts.It looksIikc this:

<ESC>&kn S

For n youentera pitchcodefromthefollowingtable:

CHARACTERSPER INCH

PITCHCODEn

10cpi(pica) O(zero)

16.66cpi(condensed) 2

Font height

The heightof the charactersyou print is measuredin point sizes. The LaserJetII cmulationprovidesfontsin

6,7, 8.5, 10,12,14, 16,18,24 and

36pointsizes.Ifthefontheightyouspecificallyaskforisnotavailable,the printerwillselectthefontwiththesizeclosestto yourrequest.

To selectfontheightfor theprimaryfontusethefollowingcommand.For n enterthe fontheightin points thatyouwant:

<ESC>(s n V

To selectfontheightforthesecondaryfont,sendthiscommand:

<ESC>

)S /z V

Style

Styledefineswhetheryourtextisprintedin italicsorupright,thewaythese wordsare.Sendthiscommandtoselectthestyleyouwantfortheprimary font:

<ESC>

(S rz S

in whichfor n you

enter Oif youwantnormaluprighttext,

or 1if you

want italics.

Toselect styleforthesecondaryfont,justreversetheparenthesisandusethe

samen numbers:

<ESC>

)S ~ S

Rememberthatstyleisarelativelylow-priorityattribute.Ifaparticularfont

satisfiesallhigherpriorityattributesbutdoesn’tcomeinthestyle youwant, you’llgetthatfontwithoutyourstyle.

Stroke weight

Theweight of a fontdefines howlightlyor boldlyit prints. WithLaserJet11emulationyoucan be more flexibleaboutstrokeweight

thanwiththeboldon/offcommandsoftheotheremulations.Thefollowing commandgivesyou a rangeof 15degreesof boldness,thoughnolmany fontsexploitthatrange.

Sendthiscommandtoselectaprimaryfontwithyourdesiredstrokeweight:

<ESC>

(S /z B

in which youreplacen withanumberfrom–7 (meaninglight)to +7 (very

bold).Youneedthenegativesigntogetthelighterweights.A weightof O

(zero)producesmediumprint.

To selectthe strokeweightforlhe secondaryfont,use thesamenumbers

withthiscommand:

<ESC>

)S /z B

Anincidentalnote:Youwilllikelyuseoptionalfontsto giveyouboldface, soprobablydon’tneedto knowthis.Butit’spossibletoprintboldwi~houl evenhavinga boldfontintheprinter.Youjustprintthetextyouwantinbold twotimes,withtheoverprintoffsetby4 decipoints.

So youcanuse the command <ESC>&a n Hto backup, youjust needto

knowthe widthin decipointsof whatyou wantto overprint. In a monospaced-pitchfontlike Courierthat’seasy:just keep track of how many charactersyou print.Inaproportionalfontyou’dkeeptrackofthedecipoints byusingacharacter-widthtable.Afterbackingup4 decipointslessthanthe totaltextwidthyou just print yourtextagain.

Typeface The

lastattributeyou can givetocharactersistheirtypeface.Thedesignof charactersis whatfont designersoftenthinkof asthemaindeterminantfor a font.Butwhenyouselectalaserprinterfont,typefacesitsatthebottom of thelist.

To assign the particularface you want for your primaryfont, send this command:

<ESC>

(S ~ T

For n enteroneof thefontcodenumbersfromthistable:

TYPEFACE n Lineprinter

O(zero)

Pica

1(one)

Elite

Courier

Helvet 4

<Tms Romn 5

Gothic

script

Prestige

Caslon

9 Orator 10 Presentation 11 LineDraw 12 PCLine

13 OCR 14 BarCode

Toassignacharacterfacetothesecondaryfont,justfliptheparenthesisand usethesamen numbers:

<ESC>

)S rI T

Example: Font attributes

Let’sputthelasthalfdozenfontaltnbutcstogetherin anexample.Saywe wanttoselecta nicefont—asmallLinePrinter- forthefootnotesinareport we’vefinished.Let’smakeitoursecondaryfont,sincethebodyofourreport is donein theprimaryfont.

We’ll go with the defaultsfor orientationand symbol set. But let’s be specificabouttheotherattributes,andlet’sremembertoputtheminpriority order.

Wedecideonamonospacedof 16.66charactersperinchandaheightofjust sevenpoints(footnotesshouldlooksmallerthanourregulartext).To keep itreadable,weoptfortheordinaryuprightstyle andmediumweightin the LinePrintertypeface.Oursequenceof individualcommandswouldlook likethis:

<ESC>

)S OP

<ESC>

)S 16.66H

<ESC>

)S 7V

<ESC>

)S OS

<ESC>

)S OB

<ESC>

)S OT

Sincethese font attributesall start with the same )s command-category prefix,let’sput themalltogetherinonccommand:

<ESC>

)S OP 16.66h 7V@ObOT

TheBASICstatcmentwccouldsendto selectourdesiredfontwouldlook

likethis;

100 LPRINTCHR$(27);“)sOp16. 66h7vOsObOT”

And assuming we have such a font in our printer, we‘d get a font that looks like this sentence for our footnotes.

Underline

Underliningis printingfeature,nota fontattribute. Youcanunderlinein twoways:asa print feature,or withthe– underline

character.If youbackspaceandusetheunderlinecharacter,however,you oftenfindtheunderlinedoesn’tcomeoutthe samelengthas yourtext.

The underlinecommandworks better. When you turn on the underline 80

featurethisway,theprinterwillunderlineallsubsequentprintablecharacters,includingspaces.

Sendthiscommandto turnontheunderliningmode:

<ESC>&dn D

in whichfor n youput O(zero)to getfixedunderline,

or 3 to getfloatingunderline.

Andsendthiscommandto turnofftheunderlinemode:

<ESC>&d@

How toprint Escape sequences and control codes

Youuse bothEscapesequencesandcontrolcodestoprint.Sohowdo you printEscapesequencesandcontrolcodes?

Butyouactuallycanprintcommands,andintwodifferentways.Youwould dothiswhenyou wanttoseeeverythingexactlyasitissenttotheprinter— forexample,todebuga stringoftextandcommandsthatdocsn’tprintthe wayyouthinkit should.

The Transparentprint commandprintsthe string of data that followsit withoutpayingattentionto any embeddedEsca~ sequencesor control codes.TransparentprintevenprintsCarriageReturncodeswithoutzapping theprintpositionbackto theleftmargin.

TouscTransparentprint,justputthiscommandimmediatelyinfrontofyour

printdata:

<ESC>&pn X For n youspecifythenumberof bytesofdatayouwantto print. Display Functions,like the Transparentprint command, prints Escape

sequcnccsandcontrolcodeswithoutactuallyexecutingthcm.ButDisplay FunctionspaysattentiontoCarnageReturncodes,sotextlooks morelike the way it normallyprints. DisplayFunctionsalso prints commandsas blanks,not as symbols.

DisplayFunctionsactuallyinvolvestwoEscapesequences,onetoturniton andanothertoturnitoff.To turnonDisplayFunctions,sendthiscommand just beforethedatayouwantdisplayed:

<ESC>Y

And to turn off DisplayFunctions,sendthis commandat the end of the

displayedprintdata:

<ESC>Z

ThatEscapeZ sequenceitselfprintsas a blankfollowedby a Z.

Font control

TheFont Controlcommandhastwomainfunctions:definingafont’sstatus, anddeletingfonts.

Youcanmakea fonteitherpermanentor temporarywiththeFontControl command.Thishelpsyou controlwhichfontsyoudelete,aspermanentfonts donotgetdeletedwhenyouresetthesystem.Thepermanentortcmporary statusyougivetoafontwillapplyonlyto thefontyoulastspecified,using oneof the fontID commandsdescribedabove.

Whenyourprinter’smemorygetsstuffedwithfonts,youcanalsousc this command to delete some of them. You can only delete fonts you’ve downloaded,asinternalandcartridgefontsareneverdeleted.Notextwill getlostwhenyoudelete a font,evenwhenthatfontisonanunprintedpage in thepnntcr’smemory.

To control fontsyousendthiscommand:

<ESC>

*C n F

For n enteroneof thenumbersfromthistableof functions:

FUNCTION

Deletealltemporaryandpermanentfonts

O(zero)

Deletealltemporaryfonts(anotherwaytodelete

1(one) ailtemporaryfontsis to senda resetcommand) Dclctcjust thefontwiththemostrecentlyspecilicdID 2 Deletejust thelastcharacterof thefontyouhave downloaded

Makethe current fontIDtemporary 4

MakethecurrentfontIDpermanent

Makea temporarycopyof thecurrentfont

Abitofexplanationaboutthatlastfunction6: WhenyougiveafontID to anyfontyoufirstneedatemporarycopyofthatfontinmemory.Thatcopy isalreadythere fordownloadedfonts. Butyouwillneedfunction6tocreate a temporarycopyof aninternalor cartndgcfont.

Here’showto assignIDnumberstoaninternalorcartridgefont.Youfirst

selectthefont,thensendthe FontIDcommandtogiveitanIDnumber,and finallycopythefont intomemorywithFontControlfunction6.Ifyouwant that copy to stay in RAM when you reset the printer, you concludeby

sendingFontControl function5.

Example: Controlling fonts

Let’sseehowthoselastfewcommandswork,translatedintoBASIC.

Pretendyouwanttomakeashorttestwithyourcurnmtfont(itdoesn’tmatter

whatit is): youwantto printwhat’sin ASCIItablepositions128through

130.There’snothingtherein yournormalRoman-8symbolset,but some

othersetskeepcontrolcodesor internationalcharactersthere.

AssumingyoulikewhatyouseeprintedfromthoseASCIIpositions,you

then wantto makethatcurrentfontpermanent.Finally,youalso wantto

dumpallthetemporaryfontsfromprintermemorytomakeroomforsome

graphicsyou’llbeprinting.

Let’sstart with a resetandan underlinedheadingfor yourtestprint:

100 LPRINTCHR$(27) ; “E” ;

110 LPRINTCHR$(27) ;“&dOD”;

120 LPRINT “Underlined heading for test print

of ASCII 128 - 130”; 130 LPRINTCHR$(27) ;“&d@” 140 LPRINTCHR$(27) ;“&p3X”;

150 LPRINTCHR$(128) ;CHR$(129) ;CHR$(130) ; 160 LPRINTCHR$(12) ; 170 LPRINTCHR$(27) ;“*c5f IF” ;

Line100isjustthe<ESC>Eresetcommand.Lines110and130turnonand off theunderlinefeature.

Line 140 turns on transparent printing, which forces printing even for normallyunprintablecontrolcodes.Thethreebytesyouwanttoprintarein line 150.To seewhat’sthere,yousendaformfeedcommandin line 160.

Andfinally,line170usesthefontcontrolcommandtomakethecurrentfont permanentandthendeletealltemporaryfonts.

Example: Assigning font numbers

Nowlet’sdo a program in BASIC. First we’llassignfont numbers to the

Courier

andPresigeresidentfontsandto acartridgefont,IBMPCCourier.

Thenwe’llprintsamplesofeachfont.

100 LPRINTCHR$(27) ; “(8U” ; 110

LPRINTCHR$(27 ) ; “ ( sOp10h12vOs Ob3T” ;

120 LPRINT CHR$( 15) ; 130 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “*cID” ; 140 LPRINT CHR$( 27 ) ; “*c6F” ;

150 LPRINT CHR$( 27 ) ; “ ( 8u” ; 160 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “ (sOp12h10vOsOb8T” ; 170 LPRINT CHR$(15) ; 180 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “*c2D” ; 190 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“*c6F” ;

200 LPRINT CHR$(27);’’(1OU” ;

210 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;’’(soplOhl2vOsOb3T’” ; 220 LPRINT CHR$(15); 230 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“*c3D”; 240 LPRINT CHR$(27); ’’*C6F” ; 250 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“(lX”;

260 LPRINT “Font 1 - Resident Courier”

270 LPRINT CHR$(27); ’’(2X” ;

280 LPRINT “Font 2 -

Resident Prestige”

29Q LPRINT CHR$(27); ’’(3X” ; 300 LPRINT “Font 3 - Cartridge PC Courier” 310 LPRINT CHR$(27); ’’(1X” ; 320 LPRINT CHR$(12)

Line 100and 110 callstheinternalCourierfontandline 120makesitthe pnmaryfont. Line 130givesit font ID number l, and line 140makesit temporary.

Lines150through190dothesamethingforthePrestigefon~andlines200 through240forthccartridgcfont NoticethatthccartridgefonthastheIBM symbolset code 10U.

Lines250through300printout samplesofthethreefonts.Finally,line310 resetsthedefaulttoourintemalCounerfont,andline320performsthefinal formfeed toprintthe page.

USINGYOUR OWN FONTS

Font design is tedious

A warning:font design is an art. Don’t expectto turn out professionallookingfontsina fewhours.

Sometimes,though,you havetobuildyourowntypeface,evenifyoudon’t workwith a companyin thefont-sellingbusiness.Youmay,for example, want to print yourown customizedcompanylogo.It meansbuildingup characterswithinacellorgrid,perhaps50dotshighand35 wide—lotsof dots.

Because defining your own typeface is so tedious, make sure you’ve checked out as many downloadablefonts as you can find from font developmentcompanies.

The next handiest way to do thejob is to ask around,maybewhereyou boughtyourLaserPrinter8,toseeifyoucangetoneofthefont-creatingor

font-editingutilityprogramsnowonthe market.FontGen[V+isone.Keep

aneyeout,too, fornewwordprocessingtoolsthatmightsaveyouthetrouble

of painstakinglyfiguringoutdetailslikekerning. Evenwithaidslikethese,buildingacustomfontis an intricateprocess.It

callsforthecreationofa familyofup to200characterssharingacommon designandproportionalscheme,andthat’sjust foronctypesize.No mean

feat. ‘

How to download your own fonts

Charactersthat you define and store yourself are called “user-defined” characters.Let’sassumeyoualreadyknowwhattextistobeinyourcustom font,andhavedesigneditstypeface,weight,widthandstyle.Onceyou’ve createdyour owncharacters,you’llneedto downloadthem to yourlaser printer.

Theprocessofdownloadinga fontyou’vedesignedyourselfis somewhat

detailed.To downloadyourfont,youfollowthefollowingsteps:

1) assigna fontIDnumberto yourfont,

2) downloada fontheader,

identifythepositionof eachcharacterto be downloaded,

4) sendacharacterdescriptorandbitmapforeachcharacter,

specifywhetherthefileisto bepermanentor temporary.

1) Assigning a font ID to your font

Toassign anIDtoyourfont,yousendthiscommand(describedaboveunder “Assigningfont ID numbem”)with an ID number for n betweenOand

32767:

<ESC>*C n D

Beforesendingthat commandthough,check whetherthe ID numberis alreadyallocatedto another font.If it is, thatexistingfontwillbe deleted withthenextcommand.

Downloading a header for your font

Evenif theprinterdoesn’thave enoughmemorytocreateyourfont,itwill deleteanyexistingfontwiththesameIDnumberwhenyoudownloadthe headerfor yourfont.

A font’s headeris thelistof itsattributes,whichyourprinteruscstoselect thatfont.Eachfontheader,26 byteslong,issto~d atthe frontof thefont. Yousend-afont headercommandto yourprinterjust beforeyoudownload the font’scharacters.

Theheadercommandlookslikethis:

<ESC>

)S n W

and must be followed immediatelyby the data describing the font’s attributes.The n valueis the actualnumberof bytesof descriptiondata, almostalways26.Note:unlikeotherLaserJetIIcommands,youmustenter theASCIIsymbols2 and6 here,notthenumber26.

Here’satypical fontheadercommand:

<ESC>)S 26WO<SUB>OIOOO<RS>O<RS>O2OO1<FF>OdOWOOOOdWX>

Asidefromthe actualcommandatthefront,the restlookslikegobbledygook?But there’s26 bytesthere,each onean ASCIIcharacter,each one specifyingaparticularfont attribute.(Theencloseditemswithbracketsare

singleASCIIcharactersthathappentobe controlcodes.)

Eachbytein theheaderis a number,whichyousend as whateversymbol happensto be storedat thatnumericpositionin the ASCIItable.Coding someofthesenumbersistricky,however,andwerecommendyouaskyour

StarMicronicsdealertohelpyoubuildyourfontheader.Togetyoustarted,

thetablebelowshowswhateachof thosebytesmeans:

BYTE o-1 2

4-5

6-7 8 9

10 11 12 13 14-15 16-17

18-19 20-22 23 24

MEANING headerlength

blank fontsize blank baselinepositionforcharacters blank cellwidth blank cellheight orientation

spacing symbolset

pitch

linespacing blank style strokeweight typeface

Positioning each character in your font

Beforeyoudownloadeachcharacteryouhavetotelltheprinterwherein its fonttableto putit.Youindicatewhereby sendingthiscommand:

<<ESC>

*C n E

Fornyouputthedecimalnumber,betweenO and255,ofthepositioninthe

fonttablewhereyouwantyourcharacterstored.

Yourprinter’sfonttableisjust liketheASCIItable.Beforeyousendeach character,sayg, youhavetosaywhereyouwanttoputit.IntheASCIItable, g is atdecimalposition103.Soyou sendthiscommand:

<ESC>

*C 103E

Andimmediatelyafterit yousendthebitsthatmakeupthe characterg.

Describing each character in your font

Thenextstepisto describeeachofyourcharacters,“mapping”whereyou

wanteachdotto go.Sendthiscommandbeforeeachcharacter:

<ESC>

(S n W

Forn youenterthenumberofbytesyou’llbesendingafterthiscommand,

to describe and map your character. Sixteen bytes are needed for the description;the bit-map takes as many bytes as you’ve put into each

charactercell— perhapstwoor threehundredbytes. Aswiththefontheader,eachbyteinthecharacterdescriptionis a number,

sent as the symbolat that positionin the ASCII table.Codingcharacter descriptionsis tricky too, so again we recommendyou ask your Star Micronicsdealer for help.The table below showswhatthe bytes in the characterdescriptionmean:

BYTE MEANING

descriptionlength

blank

2 always14

always1 4 orientation 5 blank

6-7

leftoffset(blankspaceto leftof character)

8-9

topoffset(blankspaceabovecharacter)

10-11 characterwidth 12-13 characterheight 14-15 printpositiontravel(proportionalspacingonly)

Thebitmapofthecharactersjustthepattemofdotsinthecharacter,starting atthetopleftofitscell.Youworkyourwayacrossthecellanddowntothe bottomright; givingeachdota valueof Oifit’snotto beprintedand 1if it is.Thenyou.groupthosedotsas 8-bitbytes.

Permanent or temporary?

The

laststepindownloadingyourownfontis tomakethe fontpermanent or temporary,using the Font Control commanddescribedearlier. The command<ESC> *c4 F willallowthefonttobeerasedwhenyouresetthe printer.ButthecommandcESC>*C5 F willkeepyourfontavailableeven

afteryou resettheprinter.

GRAPHICS

TheStarLaserPrinter8offerstwokindsofgraphics.Itprin~srastergraphics (sometimescalled“bit-mappedgraphics”),which specify each dot in a graphicspattern.And it printspattern graphics,which prints Iincs and pattcmcdblocks.

Bc aware,though,thataddinggraphicelementsalwaysslowsup printing withlaserprinters.

Starting raster graphics

Youfollowthesefourstepswhenyouuserastergraphics,intheordershown:

Definewhatresolutionyouneed.

2) Issuethecommandtostartgraphics.

3) Sendthecommandstotransferrastergraphics.

Sendthecommandto endgraphics.

‘Youmustdefinethe resolutionof yourrastergraphicsbeforeyou use the

StartRasterGraphicscommand.Todefinetheresolutionyouneedin your graphics,sendthiscommand:

<ESC>*tn R

For the valueof n youcan entereither75, 100,150or 300.That number defineshowmanydots pcrinchyouwantinyourfinalgraphicimage.The defaultresolutionis75dots pcrinch.Aftergraphicshavestarted,the printer willignoreanyresolutioncommanduntilit receivesthecommandto end graphics.

Rastergraphicsstart printingeither attheleftpageedgeorthecurrentprim position.Tostartrastergraphicsyousendthiscommand:

<ESC>Wn A

Youcanputin eitherO(zero)or 1(one)forthen value.If youenterO,the marginforgraphicswillbcsetattheleftmostpnntablcedgeofthepage(not the same as the left marginfor text). But if you enter 1, the margin for graphicswillbe set at the columnof the currentprint position,and your

imagewillappearonlyto therightof thatgraphicsmargin.

Aprogramminghint:move yourprintpositionindotincrementswhenever

you’redealingwith graphics.It’seasierthan tryingto calculatecolumn-

widthsordccipoints.

Sending and ending raster graphics

Graphicsprinting is independentof textmarginboundaries,includingthe perforationskipregion.Itisbnlylimitedbytheprintableareaandthepage length.

Totransferraslergraphicsyousendthiscommandatthebeginningofeach lineof rasterdata:

<ESC>*bn W

Forn youenterthenumberof bytesofgraphicsdatato followonthisline. ThedatamustfollowimmediatelyaftertheWin thiscommand.

Databytesarcinterpretedasonc lineofrastergraphicsdata(onedatarow). Eachbyteismadeupofeightbits.Thebitsof rastergraphicsdata(1‘s and O’s)yousendtotheprinterdescribesingledotsto beprinted:a 1indicates

youwantadotprinted,anda Oindicatesyoudonot wanta dotprinted.

Usethefollowingcommandtocnd rastergraphics:

<ESC>*rB

Afterendinggraphicsyoucan thensendtextto mergewithit.

Rules and patterns

Patternsandlinesareeaseto do.

Print shopscall lines of any thicknessrules. A printedline in fact is a

rectangularareawithone“skinny”dimension,fromonctomanydotsthick.

Wewillusctheword“IUICS”too,toavoidconfusionwiththelinesusedto

measurepages.

Youfollowthesethreestepswhenyouuseruleandpatterngraphics:

1) Definethedimensionsyouneed.

2) Choosethe graphicspatternyou wantto till in thosedimensions.

3) Printthepattcm. Rcmcmberto sendthefollowingruleor patterncommandsin thatorder.

Defining rule or pattern dimensions

Definingthe dimensionsoftheareayouwanttofilljustmeansindicatingthe horizontalandverticalsizeofthepattern,ortherule’slengthandthickness. Youcanindicatedimensionsineitherdotsordecipoints(tenthsofapoint).

At300dotsor720 decipointstotheinch,decipointmeasurementsarcmom accurate.The printer convertsdecipointvaluesinto dots, using 2.4 decipointsto the dot. It roundsup fractionsto the next integer.So 1225 decipointswouldworkoutto510.4dots,andthepnntcrroundsthisupto511 dots.

Yourdimensioncommandsspecifyanareatotherightanddownfromthe currentprintposition.Ifyoudefineanarealargerthanthepage,yourprinter willacceptthe command.Itwill,however,cutoffyourpattcmor ruleatthe boundariesof thepage’sprintablearea.

Whentheprinterfinishesitsprint“map”of yourruleor pattern,theprint positionautomaticallyreturnsto the spot from which you started.That

means,forinstance,thatyoucanmakealightlyshadedrcctanglcandthen startprintingtextrightoverit.Thiskindofboxcanbeusefulforsettingoff particularinformationfromthe mainbodyof yourtext.

Horizontally,youcan specifytherule lengthor horizontalpatternsize in dotswiththiscommand:

cESC> *cn A

in whichforn youenterhowmanydotsacrossthepageyou wanttherule or pattern to be.

Alternatively,to specifythe horizontaldimensionfora rule or pattcmin decipoints,youcan printthiscommand:

<ESC>

*C n H

in whichn is thehorizontalrule,orpatternsizein decipoints. Vertically,youcanindicatethesizeofyourruleorpatternin dotswiththis

command:

<ESC>

*C n B

inwhichnisthenumberofdotsdefiningthethicknessofthendcorthcdepth of thepattern.

Alternatively,to showthe verticaldimensionin decipoints,yousendthis command:

<ESC>

*C n V

inwhichnisthenumberofdecipointsintherule’sthicknessorthepattcm’s verticallength.

Choosing and printing a rule or pattern

Youneedbothofthenext twocommandstochooseandprinttheparticular patternyouwanttofillyourdefinedarea.Thesecommandsworktogether.

WiththePrintPatterncommand(whichactuallycomessecond)youspecify whetheryouwanttofillyourrectangularareawithasolidblackrule,afinely dotted gray-scalepattern,or a predefine linear pattern. And with the SpecifyPattcmcommandyoucanindicatewhichparticular dottedorlinear patternyouwant.YoualwayssendtheSpecifyPatterncommandbeforethe PrintPauem command,evenif youwanta solidblackrule.

To indicatetheparticularpatternyouwant,sendthe followingcommand. The generalmeaningof the n value you enter actuallydependson the commandyouputafterthis:

<ESC>

*C n G

If youwanta solidblackruleitdocsn’tmatterwhatyouputinfor n,asthe printerignoresit.

Ifyouwanta1-scaledottedpattern,fern youcnterhercapercentagenumber from1to 100indicatingthedensitywithwhichyouwanttheboxfilled,from lightto solid.Yourn percentagewillcomcspondto oneof theeightgrayscalcdensitiesin thechartbelow.

1- 20/0

3-10 %0

E ‘D

Star Micronics 8 Series, LaserPrinter 8 Series Applications Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual