Star Micronics NB-15 User Manual

USER’S MANUAli

h

NOT INTENDED FOR SALE

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PN 80821206

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Federal Communications Commission

Radio Fre 3 uency Interference

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

0 Reorient the receiving antenna
0 Relocate the computer with respect to the receiver
0 Move the computer away from the receiver
0 Plug the computer into a different outlet so that computer and receiver are on dif-

ferent branch circuits.

If necessary, the user should consult the dealer or an experienced radio/television techni­cian for additional suggestions. The user may find the following booklet, prepared by
the Federal Communications Commission helpful: “How to Identify and Resolve Radio­TV Interference Problems.” This booklet is available from the U.S. Government
Printing Office, Washington, D..C., 20402, Stock No. 004-000-00345-4.

For compliance with Federal Noise Interference Standard, this equipment requires a
shielded cable.

This statement will be applied only for the printers marketed in U.S.A.

Radio interferences regarding this equipment has been eliminated according to Vfg
lOr6/1984 announced by the DBP.
DBP has been informed about the introduction of this special equipment and has been
conceded the right to examine the whole series.
It is upon the responsibility of the user to assume that his own assembled system is in ac­cordance with the technical regulations under Vfg 1046/1984.
To observe FTZ-regulations it is necessary, to establish all connections to the printer
with shielded cable.
The equipment may only be opened by qualified service representatives.

This statement will be applied only for the printers marketed in West Germany.

tatement

Self Declaration

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Trademark Acknowledgement

NB-15
Apple,
Commodore C-64: Commodore usmess Machmes, Inc.
Corn aq: Compaq Computer Corporation
CP/& Digital Research
EasyWriter: Information Unlimited Software, Inc.
IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC: International Business Machines Corp.
Kaypro: Kay
Microsoft B
Osborne 1: Osborne Computer Corporation
WordStar: MicroPro International Corporation
TRS-80: Radio Shack, a division of Tandy Corporation
SuperCalc: Sorcim Corporation

NOTICE

rafstar: Star Micronics Co., Ltd.

*‘f

pple ll , Apple II+, A ple ll e, Applesoft: Apple computer Inc.

ro Corporation

R SIC: Microsoft Corporation

l Al1 rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of this manual in any form what-

soever, without STAR’S express permission is forbidden.
@The contents of this manual are subject to change without notice.
l Al1 efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this manual at

the time of going to press. However, should any errors be detected, STAR would

be greatly appreciate being informed of them.

l The above notwithstanding, STAR can assume no responsibility for any errors in

this manual.

8.

@Copyright 1986 Star Micronics Co., Ltd.

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A Special Message

to the New Owner

Congratulations for choosing this printer, one of the finest
available at any price. Your new printer will reward you with
many years of high-quality document printing, and is backed by
Star Micronics’ more than 30 years in manufacturing precision
parts. You already know that it represents the state of the art in
tack-sharp dot matrix printing with its rugged 24-pin print head.
Its bidirectional, logic-seeking operation gives you Letter-Quali­ty hardcopy at 100 characters per second, and draft-quality
print at speeds of up to 300 characters per second.

Its many features include:

l High-resolution graphics
l Built-in expandable buffer
l An entire range of character sets for printing in eleven

languages

l Choice of various typestyles
l Easy, front panel operation
l Automatic paper feed

And, best of all, your new printer is compatible with the most
popular personal computers and software packages-so no mat­ter how sophisticated your applications become, it will continue
to meet your needs.

These are just a few of the reasons you chose a product by
Star Micronics, one of the most respected names in dot matrix
printers. We want you to get the most from your printer with
the least effort on your part, so please take a few minutes to
read this easy-to-understand guide. You’ll find that it will help
you produce crisp, clean documents in the shortest time possi­ble.

You will also find that this printer is remarkably simple to set
up and operate, and that it’s virtually maintenance-free. Enjoy
your new Star Micronics printer!

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Setting Up Your Printer

Where shall we put it?
What have we here?

Removing the printer cover
Removing the packing tube
Removing shipping screws

Installing the platen knob
Installing the ribbon cartridge
Installing the mute cover
Installing the interface board
Installing the font cartridge

Getting to Know Your Printer

Controls and parts of the printer

Parts of the printer
Controls and indicators
Extra functions
Other controls

Selecting and loading paper

Loading single sheets

Loading sprocket-feed paper
Adjusting the print head
Extra functions with the control panel

Self-tests
Hex dump
Panel modes
Setting print start position
Setting the top of form
Setting the left and right margins

Connecting the printer

Using Commercial Software

First, some terminology
Using your printer with SuperCalc
Using your printer with word processors

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Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Controlling with BASIC

Some basics about BASIC

First steps
Establishing communications
The CHR$ function
Control codes
The escape codes
A note on command syntax
Some problem codes

Printing Text

Some special kinds of text

Letter Quality characters

Characters in the Font Cartridge
Underlines and overlines
Boldface printing

Superscripts and subscripts

Changing the print pitch

Expanded print

Condensed print

Proportional printing

Mixing print modes

Formatting Text

Lines and line spacing

Starting a new line

Changing the line spacing

Moving down the page without a carriage
return

Page control

Form feed

Changing the page length
Bottom margin
Setting left and right margins
Horizontal and vertical tabs

Horizontal tabs
One-time horizontal tabs

Vertical tabs

Vertical tab channels

33

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Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Special Features of the Printer

Now hear this
Resetting the printer
Putting your printer to sleep
Printing the bottom of the sheet
Backspace, delete, and cancel text
Immediate-print
Adjusting the width of space between

characters

Repeat characters
Uni-directional printing
The seven bit dilemma

Block graphics characters and special

symbols

International character sets

Printing BIG characters
The optional sheet feeder
Reading a hex dump

Creating Your Own Characters

Dot matrix printing
The print matrix
Defining your own characters

Rule 1: Dots cannot overlap
Rule 2: Each row is divided into three bytes
Assigning a value of character space
Assigning a value to your character

Download character definition command

Printing download characters

How to print the characters in control code

area

The print mode and the download characters

Draft download characters
Letter quality download characters

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Chapter 9

Dot Graphics

Comparing dot graphics with download
characters
Using the dot graphics command

Specifying the number of columns of dots
Specifying the graphics data

Combining text and graphics
Printing a design or logo
Plotting with your printer

How the program works
Using the 24-pin graphics

mode
Compatibility with existing software
Redefining alternate graphics codes

107

Chapter 10

Caring for Your Printer

Cleaning the printer
Replacing the ribbon

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Replacing the print head

Appendix A DIP Switch Settings

Switch functions

Appendix B

ASCII Codes and Conversion

Chart

Appendix C Function Codes

Commands to control print style

Font style controls
Font pitch controls
Special print modes

Controlling the vertical print position

Line feed controls
Form feed and related commands

Bottom margins and vertical tabs
Controlling the horizontal print position
Download character commands
Dot graphics commands
Other commands

Appendix D Command Summary in Numeric

Order

Appendix E Technical Specifications
Appendix F

The Parallel Interface

Functions of the Connector Signals

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139

147

191

195

199

Appendix G Serial Interface Specifications

Configuring the serial interface
The serial protocols

Serial busy protocols
XON/XOFF protocol
ACK protocol

203

Appendix H Connecting with Computer

Connecting with IBM-PC and Compaq

BASIC programming

Listing programs

Connecting with Apple II computers

Applesoft BASIC

Listing programs

Connecting with TRS-80 computers

TRS-80 BASIC

Listing programs
Connecting with Kaypro, Osborne, and other
CP/M computers

Using MBASIC

Listing programs

209

I

CHAPTER 1

SETTING UP YOUR

PRINTER

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 1 include-

. Choosing a suitable place for your printer;

l Unpacking your new printer;
l Setting it up.

WHERE SHALL WE PUT IT?

Before you do anything else, give some thought to where
you’ll be using your printer. Obviously, it will be somewhere
near your computer. And both printer and computer will lead
longer, healthier lives if they like their surroundings. For in­stance, we recommend. . .

l Using the printer on a flat surface.
l Keeping it out of direct sunlight and away from heat-

producing appliance.

l Using it only in temperatures where you are comfortable.
l Avoiding locations with a lot of dust, grease, or humidity.

l Giving it “clean” electricity. Don’t connect it to the same

circuit used by large, noise-producing appliances (such as
refrigerators).

l Making sure the line voltage is within 10% of the voltage

specified on the identification plate.

WHAT HAVE WE HERE?

Let’s open the carton and take a look at what’s inside. Check

each item in the box against Figure l-l to make sure that you
have everything (there should be six items).

igure

2) Mute cover, 3) Paper guide, 4) Platen knob, 5) Ribbon cartridge,
and 6) User’s manual.

l-l. Check to make sure you have all six items: 1) Printer,

You should also have a parallel interface board to connect
your computer to the printer. Also available are a parallel inter­face board with extra buffer memory and a serial interface
board, both optional. (More on the interfaces later.)

l Removing the printer cover

The printer’s cover is important for two reasons - it keeps
dust and dirt away from the printer’s delicate mechanism, and it
absorbs nearly all of the printer’s operating sounds. Don’t take
off the cover unless you have to change the ribbon or make an
adjustment.

Removing the printer cover is easy. Lift up the back of the

cover to disengage the three tabs at the front then lift it off the
rest of the way. To replace the cover, just slide the tabs in at the
front and lower it into place. Figure 1-2 shows the proper posi-

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tion and movement for both removing and replacing the cover.

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Figure l-2.

Remove the printer cover by lifting carefully.

n Removing the packing tube

The printer is shipped with a protective spiral tube to keep
the print head from being damaged during shipping. We have to
remove this tube. First, take off the printer cover. See the tube
on the carriage rail (Figure l-3). Pull it off carefully.

I

3

Figure 1-3. Remove the protective tube from the carriage rail.

n Removing shipping screws

There are two shipping screws inside the printer, used to hold

the internal chassis securely to the lower case during shipping.

4

To get at these, remove the printer cover from the printer. Then
remove the screws with a Phillips screwdriver as shown in
Figure l-4.

You’ll be smart to save these screws, along with the rest of
the packing material and the shipping carton, in case you ever
have to ship the printer. Tape the screws somewhere on the car­ton or packing.

Figure 1-4. There are two shipping screws inside the printer, dur-

ing shipping. They should be removed before use.

n Installing the platen knob

This is the knob that turns the rubber platen cylinder. It fits

into the hole in the right side of the printer case. Look at the
hole in the knob. See the flat side of the hole? Match the flat sur­face in the knob with the flat side of the shaft, and press the
knob onto the shaft firmly. Turn the knob a few times to make
sure that the platen rotates smoothly and easily.

n Installing the ribbon cartridge

This printer uses a neat, easy-to-change ribbon cartridge so

you don’t have to spend a lot of time threading a ribbon. And get­ting your hands all dirty to boot.

Telling you how to put in a ribbon is like explaining how to tie

your shoelaces -

it takes a lot longer to tell than to do. You can
just follow the illustrations if you wish; they’ll tell you all you
really need to know.

Or, if you feel better following written instructions, read on.

L

Figure 1-5.

snap into place.

1. Turn off the power and remove the printer cover.

2. Now slide the print head gently to the center of the
printer.

Warning: The print head gets hot during operation, so

let it cool off before you touch it.

Print head

Press the cartridge into place until the holding springs

Figure 1-6.

manually to your right or left, then the ribbon slips down by itself into
its proper position.

All you have to do is to slide the print head carriage

6

3. Using the guide holders as a fulcrum with the ribbon fac­ing away from you, as shown in Figure 1-5, lightly press
the cartridge down until the two holder springs snap shut
to hold the cartridge firmly in place.

4. Check that the cartridge fits so that the drive pins engage
the cartridge teeth.

5. Gently slide the print head carriage manually all the way
to your right or left until the ribbon automatically slips

down into its proper place between the print head and the
silver ribbon guide.

6. Put the printer cover back on and you’re finished. (A
special switch on the printer prevents the printer from
working when the cover is off.)

n Installing the mute cover

The mute cover reduces the printer’s operating sounds.

Mounting the mute cover onto the printer cover is easy.

Note the position of the guide pins on the mute cover as
shown in Figure l-7. Then hold the mute cover at each end, and
insert the guide pins into the cutout hooks of the printer cover.

Finally, lay down the free-end of the mute cover backwards.

To remove it, just reverse the procedure.

Printer

Figure 1-7.

down on the printer cover.

Install the mute cover by holding vertically, then lay

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Up to this point, we’ve been clearing the decks for action, so

to speak. There are only a couple more things left to do before

we can start printing - install the interface board and the font

cartridge.

W Installing the interface board

I I

Interface cover

Interface

Figure 1-8. Slide the I/F board into the slot.

board

The parallel interface board that comes with your printer con-

tains all the electronics that your printer needs to talk to a com-

puter. In addition, there are two optional interface (I/F) boards
that you can order: the serial interface board lets you connect to
a serial (RS-232C) computer port; the other board contains extra
buffer memory for parallel output. All three boards are installed
the same way.

To install or change an I/F board, start by turning the printer
around. Notice the snap-on cover at the left end. Take it off and
you’ll see where the board goes.

Fit the I/F board into the side slots and slide it all the way
down (don’t force it) by turning off the power switch. If the
board connector is seated snugly in its socket, you should be
able to put the cover back on and connect the cable from your
computer- you’re ready to go.

8

n Installing the font cartridge

This printer is mounted the Prestige characters as standard.
You can add two different character styles by installing the op-

tional font cartridges to the printer.

To install or change a font cartridge, start by turing off the

power switch.

Fit the font cartridge into the slots and slide it all the way.

Figure 1-9. Slide the font cartridge into front slot while the power

switch off.

CHAPTER 2

GETTING TO KNOW

YOUR PRINTER

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 2 include -

l Parts of the printer -

to use them;

l Paper selection and loading;
l Adjustment;
l Testing printer operation.

CONTROLS AND PARTS OF THE PRINTER

W Parts of the printer

First, we’ll go over the parts of the printer. You saw most of
these when you unpacked your printer. Now we’ll give you a
brief explanation of what they do.

what they’re for and how

PRINTER COVER - This protects the ribbon and the print

head from dust and dirt, and cuts down the sound of the printer.
MUTE COVER - This reduces the sound of the printer by in­stalling on the printer cover.

PAPER GUIDE - As you’ve guessed, this flat plastic

molding guides the paper during printing (it is raised for single

sheets and lies flat for sprocket-feed paper).
POWER CORD - This cord connects the printer to its power
source, usually a wall outlet. It’s located at the left rear of the
printer.
PRINT HEAD - This is the device that does the actual print­ing. Like the strike lever in a typewriter, tiny stiff wires in the
print head hit the paper through a ribbon.
TRACTOR FEED UNIT - The drive gear and sprockets of
the tractor feed unit move sprocket-feed paper through the
printer.
PLATEN - This is the rubber cylinder that carries paper to
the print head.

Mute cover

Printer cover

Interface cover

L

Figure 2-1.

Font cartridge slot

’

Front and rear views of the printer.

INTERFACE COVER - On the back of the printer, this con­ceals and protects the interface board. The cover is cut away to
expose the external connector to which you attach your com­puter cable.

11

SLOTS FOR FONT CARTRIDGES - These are the two
openings at the bottom right of the front of the printer. Insert­ing an optional font cartridge pushes the small door up out of
the way and exposes a connector which accepts the cartridge.

H Controls and indicators

Now let’s go over the controls and indicators of the printer,
starting with the control panel on the right. There are seven in­dicators and five keys on the control panel.

Figure 2-2. The control panel.

POWER INDICATOR - Glows green when the power is on.
PE INDICATOR - Stands for “Paper Empty”, and glows red

when the printer runs out of paper and when certain printer
malfunctions occur.
FORM LENGTH SWITCH -Tells the printer how long the
pages are so that it can generate an automatic TOF code at the
appropriate time.
TYPE STYLE INDICATORS - Shows the character set in
use: standard (STD), font 1 (Fl), or font 2 (F2).
TYPE STYLE KEY - Selects one of the three character sets
available to the printer.
MODE INDICATORS - Either DRAFT or LQ glows green
to indicate the mode (set by the Mode key or the DIP switch).
MODE KEY - Changes the print mode every time it is press­ed.
PITCH INDICATORS - Shows the character pitch current­ly set: Proportional (PROP), 136, 163, or 222 characters/line.

PRINT PITCH KEY -

Selects one of the four available

character pitches.

TOF KEY - Ejects the current sheet, feeds a new sheet, and
moves the print head to the left margin.
PAPER FEED KEY --Advances the paper one line at a time
when the On Line indicator is off. If you hold the key down, you
can get consecutive line feeds, one after the other.
ON LINE KEY and INDICATOR - Glows green when the
printer is ready to receive data from your computer (on line).
When the printer is off line, it sends a signal to the computer in­dicating that it cannot accept data. Pressing the On Line key
switches the printer on line and off line. When you turn the
power switch on, the printer is placed on line automatically.

n Extra functions

There are twelve more functions that are not directly
specified on the control panel. You can use seven of them by
pressing a key when you turn on the power; five others are ac­tivated by pressing two control keys at once.

For details, please refer to the end of this chapter.

n Other controls

There are other controls, not connected to the control panel.

Some of the more important ones are:

POWER SWITCH - The switch that turns the printer on

and off is at the back, on the left side.

PLATEN KNOB - This knob is at the middle of the right
side and lets you turn the platen by hand, just like a typewriter.
Caution: Turn the platen knob only with the Power switch c&f.

Turning the knob with the power on could damage the
drive gears.

RELEASE LEVER - The release lever is on top of the
printer, near the left rear corner. You’ll be using it often - it
controls how strongly the paper is held against the platen. The
release lever has four positions: the top setting is used for insert­ing paper, the next is for single sheets, the third is for sprocket­feed paper, and the bottom one is used when adjusting the
paper.
PAPER BAIL - The bail is the movable bar that holds the
paper against the platen. Its position depends on the setting of
the release lever.
DIP SWITCHES - There are two sets of eight switches that
are used in interfacing the printer to your particular computer.
There are also switches to set page length, line spacing, and per-

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foration skipping. See Appendix A for a complete list and ex­planation.

SELECTING AND LOADING PAPER

Your printer can handle the two basic types of paper - single
sheets (stationery, envelopes, multipart business forms, etc.)
and continuous paper (fan-fold perforated paper).

This is a good place to tell you about the release lever, which
you’ll be using often. This lever controls the pressure of the
paper against the platen.

It has four settings:

‘g -The top setting is used when you want to load paper in the

printer.
& - The second setting is for normal single sheets.
& - The third is for sprocket-feed paper.
u - The bottom one is used when you want to release the

paper completely to adjust it.

The paper bail holds the paper against the platen according to
the setting of the release lever. The bail is opened when the
release lever is in the top position, closed when the lever is in
the second or third positions, and opened by the printer when
the lever is in the bottom position.

I

Figure 2-3. Use friction feed for single sheets and tractor feed for

Release lever

continuous paper.

n Loading single sheets

Now, instead of feeding the paper in manually by turning the
platen knob, we’re going to use the release lever for automatic
feeding (the printer must be turned on). Single sheets from 5.5

to 14.5 inches wide can be used.

OK? Let’s start.

1. Move the sprockets and sheet guides on the tractor feed
unit all the way to the ends.

2. With the ribs of the paper guide toward you and the
sliding adjuster at the bottom left, insert the guide into
the slot at the back of the printer cover.

3. Insert the guide stand in the notches provided for it and
use it to prop up the paper guide.

4. Position the adjuster at the triangle marked on the guide
for standard margins, or set it according to your re­quirements.

5. Set the release lever for single sheets-the second posi­tion from the top.

‘igure 2-4. Raise the paper guide for loading single sheets.

15

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L,.

i.

6.

L.

I

L

Figure 2-5.
the notches provided for it.

Prop up the paper guide by inserting the guide stand in

L.

L

L.

L

1

Figure 2-6. You can insert a sheet of paper by using the release

lever.

16

6. Align a sheet of paper on the guide along the adjuster.

7. Turn on the power switch. (The Paper Empty indicator
will glow because there is no paper.)

8. Now set the release lever to the auto-feed setting-the
top position. The printer will advance the paper
automatically.

9. When the paper stops, set the release lever for single
sheets again.

To align paper that is not in straight-

. Set the release lever to the adjustment setting.

l Straighten the paper and adjust it for the margins you

want.

l Move the release lever back to its original setting.

Remember, you can also use the optional automatic sheet

feeder for single sheets.

n Loading sprocket-feed paper

This is the familiar computer paper, with the holes along the
sides and perforations between the sheets. It is also called
sprocket, punched, fan-fold, or just plain “computer paper.” It
can be as narrow as 4”, and up to 15.5” wide.

1. Turn on the printer and set the release lever for sprocket­feed paper.

2. If the paper guide is installed, remove it.

3. Place a stack of fan-fold paper behind the printer.

4. Open the sprocket covers, on the right and left sprocket
units, as shown in Figure 2-7.

5. Flip the clamp levers backward. This allows the two
sprocket units to move freely right and left so you can
align them with the holes in the paper.

6. Feed the end of the paper into the slot next to the platen
cover plate.

7. Fit the holes in the paper over the sprocket pins so the
paper is even, and clamp the sprocket units in place.

8. Check that the paper is still positioned correctly, and
close the sprocket covers (Figure 2-8).

9. The Paper Empty indicator should be glown. Turn the
platen knob to feed the paper until the indicator goes out.

10. Now turn the platen knob the other way just a bit, until
the indicator glows again.

I

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Sprocket cover

Figure 2-7.

pigure 2-8.

Open the sprocket covers to expose the sprocket teeth.

Ready to run with sprocket-feed paper.

18

11. Set the release lever to the auto-feed setting. The printer
will advance the paper automatically.

12. When the paper stops, set the release lever for sprocket-

feed paper again.

13. Finally, install the paper guide on the printer. You can in-

stall it either to lie flat as shown in Figure 2-8, or to raise
as shown in Figure 2-9. Now you’re ready to roll!

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‘igure 2-Y. You can raise the paper guide with sprocket-feed

1

19

Figure 2-10. The adjustment lever allows for different thicknesses
of paper.

You shouldn’t have any trouble finding the right gap setting

for your paper. If necessary, experiment; you’ll soon find the
best position for the paper you’re using.

EXTRA FUNCTIONS WITH THE COUTRUL PANEL

There are many functions that are not directly specified on
the control panel. In this section, we’ll show you these extra
functions.

While trrnirrg on the power -

Hex dump Self-test 1 Self-test 2

Type style & Print pitch
Panel mode

Figure 3- 11.

Extra functions white turning on the printer.

Self-test 1

DIP switch 2-2 ON

‘+,-./0123456769:;<=,?BABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ[\]

DIP switch 2-2 OFF

!“t$t&‘()*+,-./0123456784:;~=~?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPORSTUVWXYZ[\]~~~~b
!“Y$%h’()“+,-./0123456709:,
!“tSt&‘()*+,-./0123456789:;<.,7eABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]-~~8b
!“#S%h’()g+,-./01234S6709:,
!“~$tb’()~+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP~RSTUVWXYZ[\]-~~~b
!“#$X&‘()‘+.-./0123456789:

Self-test 2

.<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLtlNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]---ab

*<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLtlNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]- ‘ab

;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKL?lNOPQRSTUVWXY'Z[\]---cab

‘igure 2-12. The self-tests show you what the printer can print.

n Self-tests

Your printer has two built-in programs that printout sample
lines of letters, numbers, and other characters-to show you
that everything’s in good working order. Self-test 1 is the long
version, and self-test 2 is the short one. You can use either one
to show the characters available in the printer, to check the in­stallation of the ribbon and paper, and to check the adjustment
of the head-to-platen gap.

Best of all, you don’t have to wait another minute-you can
print the self-test without hooking up the printer to your com­puter! It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3. . .

1. Plug in the printer (don’t turn it on yet).

2. Insert a sheet of paper (or sprocket paper, either one).

3. While holding down one of the following keys, turn on
the power switch:

cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz(~)­cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz( I)­cdefghlJklmnopqr~tuvwxyz(~)­cdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz(: )­cdafghljklmnopqr~tuvwxyl(l)-

cdefghijklmnopqrstuvHxyz(l)-

cdefghlJklmnopqrrtuvwxyz(~)- !“tl$Xh
dafghljklmnopqr~tuvwxyz(~}- !“lLSt&’
efgh!jklmnopqr¶tuvwxyz(~)- !“?lSS&‘()

fgh~Jklmnopqrstuvwxy2(:)- !“#S%&‘O’

gh~Jklmnopqrstuvwxyz(: 1‘ !“a$%&’ ()

hlJklmnopqr~tuVWxyz{:)- !”

o$Z&'()*+,-./O~~~~S~~~~:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLM

()‘+,-./0123456769:;cl,?eABCDEFGH
)‘+,-./0123456769:;<‘>?eABCDETGHI

(

l +,-./0123456789:;c=>?@ABCDEFGHIJ

+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJK

'+,-./0123456769:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKL

Paper Feed key-Self-test 1 (long)

On Line key-Self-test 2 (short)

Were you surprised? It’s fast, isn’t it? About 250 characters a
second with draft characters and 83 characters a second with
LQ characters.

When you want to terminate the long self-test function, turn

off the power switch.

n Hex dump

Can you guess what a “hex dump” is? No, it’s not where

witches throw away useless spells. A hex dump is an advanced

ability with your printer that you can use, in certain cases, to
find a problem with your system. Fortunately, such problems
rarely arise but the hex dump is available if one does. We’ll go
over hex dump in Chapter 7. Right now, we’ll just tell you how
to make a hex dump:

1. Plug in the printer (don’t turn it on yet).

2. Insert a sheet of paper, as you did for the self-tests.

3. While holding down both the Paper Feed and Mode keys,

turn on the power switch.

When you want to terminate the hex dump function, turn off

the power switch.

n Panel modes

As you’ll learn in Chapter 5, this printer has many software
controls. But if you want to print in one fixed mode, ignoring the
control codes, these Panel modes take effect for you. To set the
Panel modes, follow the procedures:

1. Plug in the printer (don’t turn it on yet).

2. While holding the key or keys as shown below, turn on
the power switch.

Key
Type Style
Mode
Print pitch
TOF

Type of Panel mode
Character set type
Print quality (draft or LQ)
Print pitch
All of the above

Notice that these modes stay on with ignoring the relative con-

trol codes until you turn off the printer.

n g-pin graphics emulation mode

You already know that this printer represents the state of the
art in tack-sharp 24-pin text printing. To complete the text abili­ty of this printer, we have also the ability to do dot graphics 9-

pin printing. The IBM graphics printer mode utilizes g-pin

graphics software which is commonly used by the IBM printer.

The IBM printer requires a different line feed pitch of either

n/72nd or n/216th inches. This printer normally uses a pitch of
nll80th inches, due to its 24-pin design. To avoid software in­compatibility with existing IBM graphics programs, this printer
has been designed to most closely emulate the requirements for
g-pin dot graphics compatibility.

This unique g-pin graphics emulation mode can be envoked as

follows:

--

1. Plug in the printer (don’t turn it on yet).

2. While holding the TOF key and the Paper Feed key, turn
on the power switch.

When you want to cancel this mode, turn off the power

switch.

During normal operation -

Top of foms”-Ti j 1

23

**: Hold down

*: Press

**

**

I
II Right margin set

(Left margin set

* *

*

I I

*

**

I

Figure 2-13.

the control panel keys while in the Off Line mode.

n Setting print start position

When you want to align the print start position, you can set it
by the micro-feed operation with the control panel, instead of
turning the platen knob manually.

1. Set the Off Line mode by pressing the On Line key.

2. While holding down the On Line key, press one of the
following keys.

3. When you can set the print start position, release the

Paper Feed key or the TOF key first, then release the On
Line key.

You can set many functions by the combinations of

Paper Feed key-Forward micro-feed

TOF key-Reverse micro-feed

J

n Setting the top of form

When you turn on the printer, the top of form is automatically

set to the current position. If you want to change the position,

24

you can reset it by the following procedures.

1. Set the Off Line mode by pressing the On Line key.

2. While holding the Print Pitch key, press the TOF key.
Your printer acknowledges the new top of form with the

sound of beep.

n Setting the left and right margins

As you’ll learn in Chapter 5, you can set the left and right
margins with the control codes. In addition, you can set them
manually just like a typewriter by the following procedures.

1. Set the Off Line mode by pressing the On Line key.

2. While holding the Mode key, press one of the following
keys.

TOF key-Left margin set
Paper Feed key-Right margin set

3. While holding the two keys, the print head moves across
the page step-by-step.

4. When the print head goes to the position where you want
to set margin, release the two keys. So the printer
acknowledges the margin with the sound of beep.

CONNECTING THE PRINTER

Now that you’ve assembled and tested your printer, you’re

surely looking foward to using it forward what you bought it for -

printing! We’re almost there - just connect it to your computer

as follows:

Figure 2- 14.

Connect the cable like thm

-

I. Make sure that both your computer and printer are turn-

ed off.

2. Connect the printer end of the interface cable to the con­nector socket at the right rear of the printer as shown in
Figure 2-14.

3. Connect the other end of the cable to your computer as
described in the computer manual.

MEMO

-

-

CHAPTER 3

USING COMMERCIAL

SOFTWARE

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 3 include-

. Using your printer with SuperCalc;

l Using your printer with word processors.

Many of you purchased this printer to use with commercial
software. You made a good choice because this printer is com­patible with most commercial program, from word processing
programs to spreadsheet programs to accounting programs.

Many of these programs have a routine for describing your
printer. These routines are often in “installation programs.”
They typically give you a choice of printers or printer types to
pick from. Some typical descriptions that you might pick for
your printer are: “TTY type printer with backspace,” “IBM-dot
matrix printer,
printer.” Your printer should work fine with any of these
descriptions.

Some printer lists are not very clear, and may not include
anything that you think describes your printer. If you can’t
decide which description best fits your printer we recommend
that you narrow the list to two or three choices (you can quickly
eliminate all the daisywheel printer types) and then experiment.
You won’t hurt anything if you guess wrong; it just won’t work
right. This should quickly tell you if your guess is right. If all
else fails, though, your printer dealer will be happy to give you

some advice.

Some programs don’t ask you what kind of printer you have,
but instead they ask some questions about what your printer can
do. Here are the answers to the “most asked” questions. Your
printer can do a “backspace”.
form feed”.

With the questions answered, you are ready to start printing.

Read the manual that came with your commercial software to
see how to make it send for your printer to print. This is all you

” “Centronics-type printer,” “Dot matrix ASCII

Your printer can do a “hardware

28

need to know to use your printer as a regular printer. But this
printer isn’t just a regular printer. Your printer has many
capabilities that your commercial software isn’t aware of. A lit­tle later we will see what it takes to use some of your printer’s
advanced features with commercial software.

n First, some terminology

Your printer knows what to print because it knows how to in­terpret the codes that the computer sends to it. These codes are
numbers that the computer sends to your printer. Both the com­puter and the printer know the meaning of these codes because
they are a set of standard codes used by almost all microcom­puters. This set of codes is the American Standard Code for Infor-

mation Interchange, which is usually referred to as ASCII (pro-

nounced ask-key). There are ASCII codes for all the letters of the
alphabet, both lower case and capital, the numbers from 0 to 9,
most punctuation marks, and some (but not all) of the printer’s
functions.

ASCII codes are referred to in several different ways, de­pending on the way they are used. Sometimes these codes are
treated as regular numbers. For example, the letter “A” is
represented by the number 65 in ASCII. Appendix B shows all
of the ASCII codes.

In BASIC, ASCII codes are used in the CHR$ function. This

function is used to print the character that is represented by the
number in the CHR$( ) function. The BASIC statement
PRINT CHR$(65) will print an “A” on the terminal.

In some other programming languages, ASCII codes are refer­red to by their hex value.

“Hex” is short for hexadecimal which is

a base-16 number system (our usual numbers are base-lo).

Since hex needs 16 digits, it uses the numbers 0 through 9 and
then it uses the letters A through F for digits. The ASCII code
for the letter “A” is 41 in hex.

Of course, most of the time we don’t even need to think about

this code system. Our computers are smart enough to know that
when we press the “A” key on our keyboard we want to print
the letter “A”. The computer takes care of all the rest.

But there are a number of ASCII codes that don’t have keys
on the keyboard. The most important of these codes are the
codes that ASCII values below 32. These codes control many of
this printer’s functions. Even though there aren’t keys for these
codes, most keyboards can send these codes. It’s done by

holding down the “control” key (many times marked CTRL) and

. .

L.

.^.

u.

L.

c

L.

c..

L

29

simultaneously pressing a letter key. The particular letter key
that is pressed determines what code is sent. Control and A
sends ASCII code 1, control and B sends ASCII code 2, and so
on. Because of the way they are created, these codes are often
referred to as “control-A” etc.

So there are four common ways of referring to the same set of
codes: the character or name of the code, the decimal ASCII
value, the hexadecimal ASCII value, and the “control-” value.

For example, the code that causes the printer to advance the
paper one line is ASCII 10 (decimal). This code is commonly
referred to by all the following names:

Line feed - its name

(LF) -

ASCII 10

the abbreviation of its name

its decimal value

-

ASCII &HOA - its hexadecimal value (the &H signifies

hex)
CHR$(lO) ­control-J -

the way it’s used in BASIC

the way you send it from a keyboard

There’s a chart in Appendix B that shows these side-by-side so
that you can convert back and forth.

The reason that we are telling you all this about ASCII codes
is that people are not very consistent about how they describe
ASCII codes. We are going to help you use your printer with
commercial software, but we don’t know what its documenta­tion is going to call the various codes. So if you know all the dif­ferent things that the codes might be called, it will be easier to
figure out what it is trying to tell you.

Now, armed with the knowledge of what to look for, you can
delve into manuals of your commercial software and dig out the
secrets of how to send “control codes” to your printer. When
you find the method that your program uses, then you can shop
through this manual to find the function that you want to use.

By translating the codes from the system that we use, to the

system that your commercial software uses, you should be able
to use many of your printer’s advanced features. It may help,
however, if we look at a couple of examples.

USING YOUR PRINTER WITH SUPERCALC

.,

SuperCalc is typical of the many spreadsheet programs that

are now available. It has the capability of using several of the ad­vanced features of your printer. Perhaps the most often used
feature with spreadsheet programs is compressed printing.
Let’s see how to use compressed printing with SuperCalc.

In SuperCalc, the /Output command provides out put to the
printer. One of the options of the /Output command is S(etup).
This option provides you with a menu of functions to configure
SuperCalc to match your printer. You can change the number of
characters that SuperCalc will print on a line and the number of
lines that will print on a page. You should be sure that these
values match your printer. Your printer can print 136
characters per line of pica type, or 234 characters per line of con-

densed elite type. One of the other options on this menu is “send
setup codes to printer”.

This is how we tell this printer that we
want to use condensed print. The code to switch this printer in­to condensed print is ASCII 15, or control-O. So to switch on
condensed type, use the /Output command and, after selecting
D(isplay) and entering the range to print, select the S(etup) op­tion, and the S(etup)-“Manual setup codes” sub option. Then, at
the prompt that says “Enter codes (CR when done)“, type con­trol-0. Remember, to enter control-0 you should hold down the
CTRL key while you press the 0 key (That’s the letter Oh, not
the number zero). Then just press the return and select P(rint)
to print your report.

You only need to go through this procedure once each time
you use SuperCalc because your printer will stay in compressed
print until it’s turned off or reset.

You might also wish to use some of your printer’s other

features with SuperCalc. Find the code for the feature you wish
to use in Appendix C and use the same procedure given here.

-

--

-

USING YOUR PRINTER WITH WORD PROCESSORS

Not many word processing programs recognize the advanced
features of printers like your printer. They usually provide for
some method of making bold characters and underlining. But
your printer can do much more than that. The people that write
word processing programs do, however, know that there are a
lot of different printers on the market, and so they usually, (but
not always) provide a way of sending special codes to a printer.
We will study one example of this to see how a typical word pro-

-.

cessor handles it. Once you understand the concept you should
be able to use your program manual to figure out how your word
processor does it.

The program that we will study is‘the EasyWriter word pro­cessor for the IBM Personal Computer. This uses a fairly
typical method of handling special codes. Generally, word pro­cessing programs don’t want you to put non-printing codes in
the file. They “know” that they won’t print anything, and so
they “protect” you by not letting you use them. But the non­printing codes are the ones that you need to use your printer’s
features. So EasyWriter provides a way to override this protec­tion. If you precede a special code with a “control-O” then
EasyWriter will accept the next non-printing code.

Let’s look at a specific example. Suppose you want to print
the title of a book in boldface. The code sequence to select
boldface print is Escape G (that’s two separate characters).
Entering the G is no problem; it’s a printing character so
EasyWriter won’t object (although in this case it’s not going to
print). The Escape, however, is a non-printing character so it re­quires special handling. To enter the Escape code first enter con­trol-0 (hold the Ctrl key while you press the letter 0). Then
press the Esc key. The Escape character shows on the screen as

a left pointing arrow. Now just type the letter G and you’re

done.

When you want to end the boldface print, you need to enter
Escape H. Use the same procedure: enter control-O, Esc, and
then H.

You can use many of your printer’s features this way. Find

the codes that you need in Appendix C.

A note to WordStar users: WordStar is probably the most
popular word processing program in the world. But it provides
no way to enter special printer control codes from the keyboard.

WordStar does, however, provide you with a way to use some of

your printer’s advanced features. WordStar has four special
commands that you can use to access your printer’s features.
These are called “user printer controls” and are control-P Q,
control-P W, control-P E, and control-P R. You might use two of
these to turn boldface on and off and the other two for some
other function. The process of setting up these codes is called
“patching” and is done with the install program that comes with

WordStar. The procedure is fairly involved, but it is explained

in the WordStar manual. If you have trouble figuring it out, ask
for assistance where you bought WordStar.

32

MEMO

CHAPTfiR 4

CONTROLLING

WITH BASIC

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 4 include-

* Listing BASIC programs on the printer;

l Printing from BASIC;

l CHR$ function;
l Command syntax;
l Problem codes.

In this chapter we will be teaching you how to use your
printer’s features using the BASIC programming language. It is
easy to communicate with your printer from BASIC and, though
it has its detrators, BASIC is the nearest thing to a universal

language among users of personal computers. But remember
that it’s not the only way to communicate with your printer, as

we have already seen.

SOME BASICS ABOUT BASIC

H First steps

The first things that a beginner learns to do are to list a pro­gram and to print a character string. Certainly these are the
easiest operations one can do, but even they may depend on
what computer you have. In Microsoft BASIC, we can list all
the steps in a program by entering LIST. This lists them on the
CRT screen; if we want to print them on a printer, we prefix the
command with an L (enter LLIST).

The Microsoft BASIC command for outputting information is

PRINT. Like the LIST command, this displays the information
on the CRT screen so we have to add an L (+ LPRINT) if we
want to use the printer. Just put whatever you want to print be­tween quotes and after LPRINT (anything enclosed in quotes is
called a character string). For example, we would use LPRINT

“Hello!” to output “Hello!” to the printer. We’ll see later how to

c

LPRINT things other than character strings.

We started with Microsoft BASIC because it is the most wide­ly used version of BASIC around. The programs in this manual
are written in Microsoft BASIC so they should run on most com­puters. But if strange things happen when you try to run a pro­gram, check the BASIC manual that came with your computer.

Let’s talk about Apple II computers for a minute. These
enormously popular computers use their own brand of BASIC.
To use an Apple II, enter the following - *

PR#l

LIST

PR#O

The PR#l tells the Apple to send everything to the printer,
the LIST or PRINT command sends it, and the PR#O returns
output to the screen.

Other computers, notably the Commodore C-64, require you
to open the printer as a numbered device then to direct output to
that device. For example, you might type the following to print

“Hello!” or to list a program in the C-64’s memory.

OPEN4.4
CMD4
LIST
CLOSE4

Here, the first line says that the printer is device number 4,
the second directs output to it, the third does the printing, and
the last line closes down device number 4.

Appendix H gives more information about listing programs on
the various computers. Find the part that applies to your com­puter and try it.

Now that we all know how our computers address the printer,
let’s try listing a BASIC program. Load a BASIC program and
LLIST it (or however your computer does it). We’ve crossed the
first major hurdle-learning how to list programs on your
printer. Now we are ready to jump into the world of programm­ing with your printer. But first, there are a few fundamentals
that we need to cover.

PRRl
PRINT "Hello!"
PR#O

OPEN4,4
CMD4
PRINT "Hello!"
CLOSE4

n Establishing communications

We’ve learned something about communicating with our

printer. Now we need to adapt what we know to printing in a

35

BASIC program. Generally, computers use about the same pro­cedure for printing in a program as they do to list a program.

Let’s try what we learned. Type the following:

NEW

10 LPRINT "TESTING"

RUN

Remember-we use LPRINT; you may have to use something

else!

At any rate, you should have the word “TESTING” on your
printer. Quite an achievement, isn’t it? Let’s get done with this
simple stuff so that we can go on to something interesting.

n The CHR$ function

We mentioned CHR$ in Chapter 3 as one way to express
ASCII codes. We are going to use it a lot in communicating with
this printer. This printer uses many of the ASCII code that
don’t represent letters and numbers. The CHR$ function gives
us an easy way to send these codes to the printer. Try this to see
how the CHR$ function works:

NEW

10 LPRINT CHR$(80)

RUN

That should print a “P” for Printer. If you check the chart in

Appendix B you will see that 80 is the ASCII code for “P”.

n Control codes

This printer uses many of the non-printing ASCII codes for
control codes. These codes perform a function rather than print­ing a character. Let’s try an easy one right now:

NEW

10 LPRINT CHRS(7)

RUN

36

Where did that noise come from? That’s the printer’s bell. We
will learn more about it in Chapter 5. We just wanted to il­lustrate a code that causes the printer to perform a function.

n The escape codes

Back when the ASCII system was set up, computer equip-

ment was relatively simple and thirty-three control codes were
considered sufficient at the time. The American
Standards people realized that, eventually, more control codes
would be needed so they included the escape (ESC) code to
allow almost any number of additional codes to be defined when
they became necessary.

ESC allows us to “escape” from the ordinary set of control

codes so we can specify additional functions and other informa­tion needed for a printer function. In this manual, we’ll write the
ESC code inside broken brackets, like this - (ESC).

(ESC) - decimal 27 - is always followed by at least one

other number; it is never used alone. The whole series of related
numbers is called an escape sequence.

n A note on command syntax

Because the readers of this manual will be running such a
wide variety of applications on so many different computers, we
just can’t show the exact way of sending codes to the printer for

each one of them. Instead, as we introduce you to each new com­mand, we will show the commands as in this example:

(ESC)

“W” 1

This command that turns on expanded printing. (ESC), as we
mentioned earlier, is the escape code (which is ASCII code 27).
A letter or number in quotes (such as the “W” above) means that
the character should be sent to the printer (without the quotes).
In our example, you should send a capital W following the
escape code. In BASIC, you could do this in a couple of ways: by
sending the character itself (e.g. LPRINT “W”;), or by using the
CHR$ function to send the ASCII code for the character (e.g.
LPRINT CHR$(87);).

Many of printer commands end with a 1 or 0. When shown as
in the above example (i.e. no quotes and no “CHR$“), you can
use either ASCII code 1 (i.e. CHR$(l)) or the character “1”
(which is ASCII code 49). The same idea applies to commands

ending with 0.

So for out example above, any of these BASIC statements will

have the same result:

37

cc.

L

c...

I-.

L”.

LPRINT CHR$(27);"W"CHR$(l)
LPRINT CHR$(27);"W"CHR$(49)
LPRINT CHRS(27);"Wl"

Even though, there are many commands that require the use

i.

of ASCII code 0; the character “0” (ASCII code 48) cannot be
substituted. In these cases, instead of an unadorned 0 we will

c,

L-

show CHR$(O) each time these commands are referenced.

n Some problem codes

Before we go too far we need to mention some codes that may

cause you problem.

Nearly all BASICS change some of the ASCII codes between
your BASIC program and your printer. IBM’s Microsoft BASIC
adds a CHR$(lO) (a line feed) to a CHR$(13) (a carriage return)
before sending it on. Another problem code is ASCII 26. Once
again we refer to Appendix H where some more specific infor­mation awaits.

That’s it for the basics. You are ready to learn how to use the

many features of your printer.

38

MEMO

CHAPTER 5

PRINTING TEXT

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 5 include-

* Letter quality (LQ) characters;

l Underlining and overlining;
l Superscripts and subscripts;
l Print boldface;
l Print pitches.

The rest of this manual will show you a little BASIC - just
enough for you to use your printer. We’re not going to try to
make you an expert programmer, though, only get you started.

All our examples will be given in Microsoft BASIC as used by
the IBM Personal Computer, but remember that you don’t need

to know BASIC to use your printer’s features. Just use the same
ASCII codes as we do in our examples with all DIP switches are
set on condition.

If your computer doesn’t use Microsoft BASIC, look in the ap-

pendix to see what changes you need for your BASIC.

You have already printed a few lines on your printer. Now it’s

time to start looking at the many variations of printing style that
you have available to you.

SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF TEXT

If you looked carefully at your printer’s self test, you noticed
that it can print many styles. But there’s more! Your printer can
underline or overline characters, print superscripts and

subscripts, and perhaps most exciting, print letter quality
characters.

n Letter Quality characters

This printer’s Letter Quality (sometimes abbreviated as LQ)

character set is ideal for correspondence and other important

40

printing, for it takes a keen eye to detect that it is from a dot
matrix printer. Normally, your printer prints draft quality
characters when the DIP switch 1-4 is set off. This is adequate
for most work and it prints fastest. But for the final printout, try
Letter Quality. The program below shows how.

Demo of LQ character set

10 '

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; "xl";
30 LPRINT "This line shows LETTER QUALITY!'*

40 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “x0” ;

50 LPRINT "This line shows standard print."

In this program, line 20 selects LQ characters with (ESC) “x”

1 command. Line 30 prints a sample before line 40 switches
printer back to draft printing with an (ESC) “~“0. When you
run the program you should get this:

This line shows LETTER QUALITY!

This line shows standard print.

Table 5-l

Letter quality commands

Function

Letter quality ON

Letter quality OFF

Control code

(ESC) “~"1

(ESC) “~"0

n Characters in the Font Cartridge

This printer offers you the Prestige LQ characters as stand­ard. If you want to use other LQ character styles, use the op­tional font cartridges.

You can install those font cartridges following the procedures

described in Chapter 1. You can control the characters in those
font cartridges as shown below:

10 ’ Demo of optional characters

20 LPRINT CHR$(27):"xl";
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"k";CHR$(l);
40 LPRINT "This line shows Font 1 characters."
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"k";CHR$(2);

60 LPRINT “This line shows Font 2 characters.”

70 LPRINT CHR$(27);“k”;CHR$(O);
80 LPRINT “This line shows Internal Characters.”
90 END

When you’ve installed the Gothic Font Cartridge to the font
slot 1, and the Italic Prestige Font Cartridge to the font slot 2,
the results of this program look like this:

This line shows Font 1 characters.

This line shows Font 2 characters.

This line shows Internal Characters.

In this program, line 30 selects the characters on the font slot

1, with (ESC) “k” CHR$(l) command. Line 40 prints a sample
with the LQ characters in the font cartridge installed on the font
slot 1. Line 50 selects the font cartridge slot 2 with (ESC) “k”
CHR$(2) command. Line 60 prints a sample with the font slot 2
characters before line 70 switches printer back to internal LQ
characters with an (ESC) “k” CHR$(O) command.

You can control the font styles with the extra functions with

the control panel.

Table 5-2

Font selection commands

Function Control code

Selects font slot 1

(ESC) “k” CHR$( 1) or (ESC) “4”
Selects font slot 2 (ESC) “k” CHR$(2)
Selects internal characters
Cancels font slot 1

iESC j “k” CHR$(Oj

(ESC) “5”

n Underlines and overlines

Not only your printer print all characters in both draft and LQ,
but it can underline or overline them too. The control codes are
shown in Table 5-3.

42

Table 5-3

Underline and overline commands

1 Function 1 Control code I

Underline ON
Underline OFF
Overline ON (ESC) “p”1

f Overline OFF

(ESC) “-“l
(ESC) “-“0

, \---I -

1 (ESC) “‘-“O

Again, that’s simple. Let’s try it with this program:

10 ’

Demo of underlining and overlining
20 LPRINT “Demo of “;
30 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“-1”;
40 LPRINT “UNDELINED”;
50 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“-O”;
60 LPRI NT ‘* and ” ;
70 LPRINT CHR$(27);” 1”;
80 LPRINT “OVERLINED”;
90 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “-0” ;

100 LPRINT ” printing.”

It should come out like this:

Demo of UNDELINED and m printing.

In this program underline is turned on in line 30 with (ESC)

“

-“l, and then off in line 50 with (ESC) “-“O. The overline is
turned on in line 70 with (ESC)“-” 1, and then off in line 90
with (ESC)“-“O. There’s a new little wrinkle in this program,
though. The semicolons at the end of the lines told BASIC that
those lines were to be continued. Therefore, BASIC didn’t send
a carriage return and line feed at the end of those lines. We just
did this to illustrate that all these control codes can be used in
the middle of a line. It’s easy to underline or overline only part
of a line.

H Boldface printing

Your printer has very good density when it’s just printing
regularly. But sometimes you may want something to stand out
from the rest of the page. This printer provides a way to do this

with boldface printing.

The following table shows the control codes for getting into

and out of boldface mode.

Table 5-4

Boldface print commands

43

Function

Boldface ON
Boldface OFF

Control code

(ESC) “E” or (ESC) “G”
(ESC) “F” or (ESC) “H”

Try this short program to see the boldface mode:

' Demo of boldface

10

20 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “E” ;
30 LPRINT “This line is BOLDFACE printing."

40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"F";
50 LPRINT "This line is normal printing.*'

Run this program. The results will look like this:

This line is BOLDFACE printing.
This line is normal printing.

Line 20 turns on boldface with (ESC)“E” and line 30 prints a
line of text. In line 40 turns boldface off with (ESC)“F”, so your
printer is set for normal printing.

Look closely at the different lines of printing. First line,
boldface printing, has been printed twice, and they are moved
down just slightly the second time they are printed. Now that’s
pretty nice printing, isn’t it?

n Superscripts and subscripts

Your printer can print in two different heights of characters.

The smaller characters are called superscripts and subscripts and
are half the height of normal characters. Superscripts print even
with the tops of regular printing while subscripts print even with
the bottom of regular printing. They are frequently used to
reference footnotes, and in mathematical formulas.

Table 5-5 has the codes for using superscripts and subscripts.

44

Table 5-5

Superscripts and subscripts commands

Function

Superscript ON
Subscript ON
Super and subscript OFF

Control code

(ESC>“S”O
(ESC)“S”l
(ESC)“T”

Try this program to see them work:

10 ' Demo of superscripts and subscripts

20 LPRINT "Look! ";
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"SO";
40 LPRINT "SUPERSCRIPTS *';
50 LPRINT CHRS(27);"T";
60 LPRINT "& **;

70 LPRINT CHRS(27);"Sl";
80 LPRINT "SUBSCRIPTS ";
90 LPRINT CHR$(27);"T";

100 LPRINT "on one line."

Look!

SUPERSCRIPT5 &

SUBSCRIPTS

on one line.

Here line 30 turns on superscripts with (ESC) “S’O. It’s turn­ed off in line 50 with (ESC) “T”. Then between printing text,
subscripts are turned on in line 70 with (ESC) “S’l, and finally
off in line 90. Again, everything prints on one line because of the
semicolons.

-

CHANGING THE PRINT PITCH

In “printer talk,” the number of characters that can be printed

in one inch is called the print pitch or character pitch. Normally,

your printer is set for 10 characters per inch, which is called pica

(and is the same as the pica pitch on some typewriters). This

works out to 136 characters per line.

You can also print 12 characters per inch (elite pitch). This

gives you 163 characters per line.

You can set these pitches by using the Mode key on the con-

trol panel manually, or by software as shown in the table below.

Table 5-6

Print pitch commands

45

Pitch

Pica

Elite

Characters/inch

10
12

Control code

(ESC) “P"

(ESC)“M"

Try this program to see how these two pitches work.

' Demo of pica and elite pitches

10
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";
30 LPRINT "This line is ELITE pitch."
40 LPRINT CHRS(27);"P";
50 LPRINT "This line is PICA pitch (normal)."

When you run this program you should get this:

This line is ELITE pitch.
This line is PICA pitch (normal).

Line 20 turns on elite pitch with (ESC) “M”. Line 30 prints a
line at 12 characters per inch. The (ESC) “P” in line 40 resets
the printer to pica pitch and line 50 prints a line in pica pitch.

n Expanded print

Each of the print pitches can be enlarged to twice its normal

width. This is called expanded print. Try this program to see
how it works:

' Demo of expanded print

10
20 LPRINT "Demonstration of *';
30 LPRINT CHR$(14);
40 LPRINT "EXPANDED";
50 LPRINT CHR$(20);
60 LPRINT

w printing."
70 LPRINT "Notice that '*;
80 LPRINT CHR$(14);
90 LPRINT "EXPANDED mode"

100 LPRINT *'automatically turns off at the end of a

line."

46

Demonstration of EXPANDED printing.
Notice that EXPANDED mode

automatically turns off at the end of a line.

Expanded print set with CHR$(14) is automatically cancelled
at the end of the line. This is convenient in many applications,
such as for one line titles. Note that you didn’t need to put an

(ESC) in front of the CHR$(14), although (ESC) CHR$(14)

works just the same.

You can also cancel one line expanded print before a carriage

return with CHR$(20), as done in line 50.

Sometimes you may wish to stay in expanded print for more
than one line. Change your program to this:

10 ’

Demo of permanent expanded mode
20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“Wl”;
30 LPRINT “Permanent expanded”
40 LPRINT “mode stays on until”
50 LPRINT “it is “;
60 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “WO” ;
70 LPRINT “turned off.”

-

Now the results look like this:

Permanent expanded
mode stays on

it is

turned off.

until

When you turn on expanded print with (ESC) “W”1 it stays

on until you turn it off with (ESC) “W”0.

Table 5-7

Expanded print commands

Function

One line expanded ON

One line exDanded OFF CHR$(20)
Expanded 6N
Expanded OFF

Control code

CHR$(14) or (ESC)CHR$(14)

(ES6)“W” 1
(ESC)“W”O

I

/

?

:’

n Condensed print

Each of the print pitches also can be condensed to its normal

width. This is called condensed print. Try this program to see

how it works:

10 ’ Demo of condensed pitch

20 LPRINT "Demonstration of ";
30 LPRINT CHR$(15);
40 LPRINT "CONDENSED";
50 LPRINT CHR$(lS);
60 LPRINT w printing."

Demonstration of CONDENSED printing.

Condensed print set with CHR$(15) stays on until you turn it

off with CHR$( 18). Note that you don’t need to put an (ESC) in

front of the CHR$( 15), although (ESC) CHR$( 15) works just

the same.

47

Table 5-8

Condensed print commands

Function

Condensed ON

Condensed OFF

By combining expanded print and condensed print with the
two pitches, this printer has eight different character widths
available.

Enter this program to see how the print pitches, expanded

print and condensed print can be combined:

10

' Demo of various print pitches

20 LPRINT CHR$(15);

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

40 LPRINT "This line is CONDENSED ELITE pitch."

50 LPRINT CHRS(27);"P";
60 LPRINT "This line is CONDENSED PICA pitch."
70 LPRINT CHR$(lB);
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";
90 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL ELITE pitch."

Control code

CHR$(15)or(ESC) CHR$(15)

CHR$(18)

48

100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P";
110 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL PICA pitch."
120 LPRINT CHRS(27);"Wl";
130 LPRINT CHR$(15);
140 LPRINT CHRS(27);"M";
150 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED ELITE."
160 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P";
170 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED PICA."
180 LPRINT CHR$(lS);
190 LPRINT CHRS(27);"M";
200 LPRINT "This is EXPANDED ELITE."
210 LPRINT CHRS(27);"P";
220 LPRINT "This is EXPANDED PICA."
230 LPRINT CHR$(27);"WO";

Here’s what you should get from this program:

Thus line is CONDENSED ELITE pitch.

This line is CONDENSED PICA pitch.

This line is NORMAL ELITE pitch.
This line is NORMAL PICA pitch.

This 1 ine is EXPANDED CONDENSED ELITE f
This 1 ine is EXPANDED CONDENSED PICA,
This
This is

is EXPANDED EL.ITE,

EXPANP)ED PICA,

W Proportional printing

Have you ever noticed in books and magazines? Doesn’t it
look nice? The main reason is that each character is given an
amount of space proportional to its actual width. A typewriter

(and most printer), on the other hand, give every character the
same amount of space, no matter how wide it is. (Pica pitch, for
example, gives a “w” and an “i” l/10 of an inch each. Look these
letters closely and you’ll see that a “w” is two or three times as

wide as an “i”.)

Well, you too enjoy professional-looking proportional print-

ing. You can turn proportional printing on and off with the

following command.

Table 5-9

Proportional commands

49

Function

Proportional ON
Proportional OFF

Control code

(ESC)“p”l
(ESC)“p”O

Try this program to see how the proportional spacing works.

’ Demo of proportional printing

10

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “~1”;

30 LPRINT “This line is PROPORTIONAL printing.”
40 LPRI NT CHR$ (27) ; “~0” ;
SO LPRINT “This line is NORMAL PICA print.ing.”

When you run this program you should get this:

This line is PROPORTIONAL printing.
This line is NORMAL PICA printing.

In this program line 20 turns on the proportional printing with

(ESC)“p” 1. Line 30 prints a line with proportional pitch. Then,
line 40 resets the proportional printing and line 50 prints a line
in normal pica pitch.

NOTE: When you change the print pitch by the MODE key on

the control panel,

this proportional spacing should be

automatically cancelled.

MIXING PRINT MODES

We have learned how to use the various print modes in-

dividually and together. Now we’ll see how to combine them

more efficiently.

You have at your disposal a unique command that lets you
choose any valid combination of print modes and pitch. This is
the Master Print mode command. It looks like this:

(ESC) “!” n

50

Here, the value of n defines the print style to be selected. The
value of n can range from 0 to 255, which is the range of values
that can be stored in one eight-bit byte. If you look at each bit in

this byte, you’ll find that each one represents a printing style
variation. Adding the binary values of the selected bits gives the

value of n for a particular combination of print styles.

Table 5-10 shows the decimal values of the bits in the Master

Print byte. To calculate the value n for a particular combination
of printing styles, just add the values of the features that you
want to combine.

Table 5-10

Values of mixing print styles for Master Print

Bit 1 Print style

1

2 Proportional print
3 Condensed print
4 (Not used)

I5

6 Expanded print
7
8 Underline

1 Elite mint

1 Boldface mint

(Not used)

I

I

Decimal value

1
2
4

16

32

128

For example, if you want to select elite expanded boldface

print, you would calculate the value of n like this:

Elite

1
Boldface 16
Expanded 32
n= 49

The command would look like this:

CHR$(27);“!“;CHR$(49)

To better understand the way the print modes work, consider

that each mode except pica (pica is the default) has a separate

switch that can turned on and off via software. Once the switch
is on, it stays on until turned off. When two modes that conflict
are turned on at the same time, the printer must choose which
one to use.

I

-

-

-

For example, suppose you turn on both Proportional and Con­densed modes. Since these cannot combine the printer must
make a choice; in this case, the printer chooses Proportional.

Summary notes

1) Pica is the default pitch and is active when Elite is turned
off.

2) When two modes conflict, the one of lesser priority is
cancelled. For example, Proportional and Condensed can
not be printed at the same time, printing is Proportional.

3) Underline, and Expanded modes combine with any print
modes.

4) Proportional characters are always printed in Boldface.

51

MEMO

-

CHAPTER 6

FORMATTING TEXT

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 6 include-

* The carriage return and line feed;

l The amount of space between lines;
l Moving to the next page;
l The number of lines on a printed page;
l Horizontal and vertical tabs;
l Setting margins- left, right, and bottom.

-

Chapter 5 showed us all the basic techniques of using the
printer. Now we’re ready for the more advanced ones. We’ll con­centrate on changing the appearance of the page to suit our
needs.

LINES AND LINE SPACING

n Starting a new line

Up until now the only time we have thought about printing on

a new line is when we didn’t want it to happen. We learned that
putting a semicolon (;) at the end of a BASIC line will not end the
line of printing. So somehow, the computer telling the printer

when to end one line and start another.

There are two codes that are used to end one line and start

another. They are carriage return (CHR$(13)) and line feed
(CHR$(lO)). Like the escape code, they have been given ab­breviations which you’ll find many texts (including this one):

< CR > and < LF > . The codes are simple, but their action is a
little confusing (especially with BASIC). Carriage return is the
easiest. Each time that the printer receives a CHR$(13) it
returns the print head to the left margin. It does not advance the
paper (if DIP switch 2-6 is on; see below).

Line feed is more complicated. Each time the printer receives

a CHR$(lO) it both advances the paper one line and returns the

54

print head to the left margin, ready to start a new line.

Now to add a little confusion-most (but not all) versions of
BASIC add a line feed (CHR$(lO)) to every carriage return
(CHR$(13)) that they send. If your version of BASIC doesn’t do
this, then you should turn DIP switch 2-6 off so that your printer
will add the line feed for you. When you have DIP switch 2-6 off
the printer will do the same thing when it receives a carriage
return as it does when it receives a line feed.

If you find that your printer double spaces when it should
single space, then you probably need to turn DIP switch 2-6 on.

Table 6-1

Line feed commands

Function

Return print head to left margin CHR$(lS)
Advance paper one line

Control code

CHR$(lO)

n Changing the line spacing

When you turn your printer on the line spacing is set to 6 lines
per inch (or 8 lines per inch if DIP switch 2-8 is off). This is fine
for most printing applications, but sometimes you may want
something different. Your printer makes it easy to set the line
spacing to whatever you want.

Try this program to see how easy it is to change the line spac­ing:

10 ’

Demo of line spacing

20 FOR I=1 TO 20
30 IF I=13 THEN 60
40 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “A” ; CHRS ( I ) ; CHR$ (27) ; “2” ;
50 LPRINT “THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO”;1
60 NEXT I
70 LPRINT “THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO l/6 INCH.”

80 LPRINT CHR$(27) ; “A”;CHR$( 10) ;CHR$(27) ; “2”;

90 END

This is what you will get:

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 9
THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 10

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 11
THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 12

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 14
THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 15

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 16
THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 17
THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 18

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 19

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO 20

THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO l/6 INCH.

Line 40 defines and changes the line spacing. The command

(ESC)“A”CHR$(n) defines the line spacing as n/60 of an inch;

the (ESC)“2” command changes the line spacing to the amount
defined by the previous (ESC)“A”. The loop that is started in
line 20 increases the value of n (the variable I in the program)
each time it is executed. So the line spacing increases as the pro­gram continues. Line 30 shortcuts the loop when I = 13, since

BASIC won’t let us send CHR$(l3) without adding an unwanted
CHR$(lO) to it. Finally, the (ESC)“A”CHR$(lO) and (ESC)“2”
commands in line 80 reset the line spacing to 6 lines per inch
(IO/60 or l/6 inch).

NOTE: When you look the results closely, the line spacing with
the (ESC) “A” CHR$(l2) command sets the line spacing to l/6

inch instead of setting 12/60 inch. This is because that the g-pin
printers are normally sets the line spacing to 12/72 inch (l/6
inch) with this command, and most software programs use this
command to set the line spacing to l/6 inch, and we’ve thought

the compatibility with those programs. (The same reason for the

(ESC) “3” CHR$(36) command.)

56

When you are using your printer with the DIP switch 2-2 off,

the (ESC)“A”CHR$( )

n works to change the line spacing
without (ESC)“2”. So in this case, change the following lines as
shown below:

40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"A";CHR$(I);
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"2"

The results are the same as previous one.

You may wonder why they picked l/60 of an inch as the incre­ment for the line spacing command. There’s a good reason: the
dots that the printer makes are l/l80 inch apart. So this means
that you can vary the line spacing in increments as fine as three
dots - unless you want finer spacing, like one dot spacing.

The (ESC)“3”CHR$(n) command sets the line spacing in in­crements of l/180 inch. Change line 40 in your program so it is
like this:

40 LPRINT CHR$(27):"3";CHR$(I);

and run the program again. Now the results will look like this:

INCH.

The program works just the same as before, but the line spac­ing are just one-third what they were. This is because (ESC)“3”
CHR$(n) sets the line spacing to n/180 inch.

Table 6-2 shows all the line spacing commands, including
several “shortcut” commands for commonly used line spacings.

.

Table 6-2

Line spacing commands

Function

Set line spacing to l/8 inch
Set line sDacinz to 7160 inch

Set line macinn to l/6 inch or use 0W”A” defiiitiod (ESC )“2”

1 Set or define line spacing to n/60 inch

One-time line feed of n/180 inch (ESC)“J"CHR$(n)

-reverse line feed of n/180 inch 1 ( ESC)“

Control code

(ESC)“O”
(ESC)“l”

I (ESC)“

n Moving down the page without a carriage return

So far, all the commands that move the paper also move the
print head to the left margin. And normally this is what you
want. Sometimes, though, you may wish to move down the page
without moving the printhead back to the left margin. The
following commands do just that.

The (ESC)“J”CHR$(n) command causes the printer to make
one line feed of n/180 inch, but does not change the setting of the
line spacing. Try this program to see how it works:

10 ' Demo of one-time line feeds

20 LPRINT "LINE NUMBER 1."
30 LPRINT "LINE NUMBER 2.";
40 ' One-time line feed

50 LPRINT CHR$(27);“J*‘;CHR$(lOO);

60 LPRINT "LINE NUMBER 3."

70 LPRINT "LINE NUMBER 4."

80 END

Here is what your printer will produce:

LINE NUMBER 1.
LINE NUMBER 2.

LINE NUMBER 3.

LINE NUMBER 4.

58

The (ESC)“J”CHR$(lOO) in line 50 changes the spacing to

100/180 inches for one line only without moving the printhead.
The rest of the lines printed with the normal line spacing.
Notice that both line 30 and line 50 end with semicolons. This
prevents the normal line feed from occurring.

The (ESC)“j”CHR$(n) command works the same way except
that the paper moves in the opposite direction. Try this simple
change to your program and see what a difference it makes!

40 ’ One-time reverse line feed
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);“j”;CHR$(lOO);

LINE NUMBER 3.

LINE NUMBER 4.
LINE NUMBER 1.

LINE NUMBER 2.

PAGE CONTROL

Now that we have seen how to control line spacing, we can go

on to page control - positioning the printing on the page and ad-

justing the paper length.

n Form feed

The simplest forms control code is the form feed. Form feed

(or < FF >) is CHR$(12) and causes the printer to move the
paper to the top of the next sheet. Try it by changing lines 40
and 50 to this:

’ Form feed

;: LPRINT CHRS(12);

Before you run the program, turn your printer off and adjust
the paper so that the top of the sheet is even with the top of the
ribbon guide on the print head, then turn the printer back on. If
you don’t remember how to do this, review Chapter 2. When
you run the program, the results will look like this:

59

,____ iv------- -------- -

1 LINE NUMBER 1.

0,

01

LINE NUMBER 2.

I

I

I

-- ------ - ---- ------_-__

I LINE NUMBER 3.

0 ; LINE NUMBER 4.

OI

I

The form feed (CHR$(12)) in line 50 caused the printer to

move to the top of a new page before printing the last two lines.

n Changing the page length

You may have some computer forms that you wish to use with
this printer that are not 11 inches high. That’s no problem,
because you can tell your printer how high the forms are that
you are using. There are two commands for doing this, shown in
this table.

OI

I

Table 6-3

Form length control

Function

Advance paper to top of next page
Set the page length to n lines

Set the page length to n inches (ESC)“C”CHR$(O)CHR$(n)

Let’s set up a 7 inch high form length, which is typical of

many computer checks. The following program will do it.

10 ‘Demo of variable form lengths
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);“C”;CHR$(O):CHR$(7);
30 LPRINT “PAY TO THE ORDER OF : ”
40 LPRINT CHR$(12);
50 LPRINT “PAY TO THE ORDER OF : ”

60 END

Control code

CHR$(12)

(ESC)“C”CHR$(n)

This program should print

“PAY TO THE ORDER OF:”
twice, and they should be 7 inches apart. Line 20 sets the form
length to 7 inches. After line 30 prints, line 40 sends a form feed
advance the paper to the top of the next form. Line 50 then
prints its message.

After you have run this program, turn off the printer and ad-

just the top of form position. When you turn the printer back on

the page length will reset to its normal setting (usually 11
inches).

BOTTOM MARGIN

Many programs that you use a printer don’t keep track of

where they are printing on the page. This causes a problem

when you get to the bottom of a page because these programs
just keep on printing, right over the perforation. This makes it
very hard to read, especially if a line happens to fall right on the

perforation. And if you separate the pages then you are really in

trouble.

Of course your printer has a solution to this predicament. This
printer can keep track of the position on the page, and advance
the paper so that you won’t print too near the perforation. There

is a command to do this. The control codes to set and cancel are

given in the following table.

Table 6-4

Bottom margin commands

Function

Set bottom margin to n lines
Cancel bottom marain

Control code

(ESC)“N”CHR$(n)

(ESC)“O”

When you set the bottom margin with (ESC)“N”CHR$(n),
the value of n tells the printer how many blank lines should be
left at the bottom of the page.

Let’s try a simple application to see how these margins work.
Enter this program, which will print 150 lines without bottom
margins.

Demo of bottom margin

10 ’

40 LPRINT CHR.$(12);

' Form feed

50 FOR I=1 TO 150
60 LPRINT "THIS IS LINE";1

70 NEXT I

90 LPRINT CHR$(lZ);

' Form feed

100 END

When you run this program it will print 150 lines right down
the page and across the perforations. When it’s done line 90
sends a form feed to advance to the top of the next page. Look at
the lines that have printed near the perforations. Separate the

sheets and see if any of the lines have been torn in half. These

are the problems that the bottom margin will solve.

Now add the following lines to your program. (Don’t forget
the semicolons or you won’t get quite the same results that we

did.)

20 ’ Leave 6 blank lines at the bottom of page

30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"N";CHR$(6);
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"0"; ' Clear bottom margin

Now when you run the program, your printer skip the last six
lines on each page.

Line 30 sets the bottom margin, and line 80 clears bottom
margin when we are done.

62

THIS IS LINE 2

THIS IS LINE 4

THIS IS LINE 6

I THIS IS LINE 54

THIS IS LINE 5.5
THIS IS LINE 56
THIS IS LINE 57

I THIS IS LINE 58

0 1 THIS IS LINE 59

; THIS IS LINE 60

THIS IS LINE 62
I THIS IS LINE 63
1 THIS IS LINE 64

THIS IS LINE 65

THIS IS LINE 66

; THIS IS LINE 114

THIS IS LINE 115
THIS IS LINE 116

0:

/ THIS IS LINE 117
I THIS IS LINE 118

0 ; THIS IS LINE 119

, THIS IS LINE 120

--I-TH?"%-fi"" 121
THIS IS LINE 122

THIS IS LINE 123

i THIS IS LINE 124

0 I THIS IS LINE 125

I THIS IS LINE 126

, THIS IS LINE 127

(j

, THIS IS LINE 128

------

SETTING LEFT AND RIGHT MARGINS

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The left and right margins of this\printer work just like a

typewriter -

once they are set all the printing is done between
them. The commands to set the margins are given in the follow­ing table:

Table 6-5

Left and right margin commands

Function

Set left margin at column n
Set right margin at column n

Control code

(ESC)“l”CHR$(n)
(ESC)“Q”CHR$(n)

Try setting the margins with this program:

Demo of margins

10 ’

20 GOSUB 70
30 LPRINT C~$(27);“1”;CHR$(lO);
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);“Q”;CHR$(70);
50 GOSUB 70
60 END

70 FOR I=1 TO 80

80 LPRINT “X” ;

90 NEXT I
100 LPRINT

110 RETURN

The first thing that this program does is to branch to the

subroutine that starts in line 70 . This subroutine prints 80 X’s

in a row. The first time that the subroutine is used, all the X’s fit

in one line. Then line 30 sets the left margin to 10, and line 40
sets the right margin to 70. Once again the subroutine is used,
but this time the X’s won’t all fit on one line since there is now

only room for 60 characters between the margins.

Run the program. The results will look like this:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

When you want to reset the margins to the default values, you

have two choices. You can either turn the printer off and back

64

on, or you can set margin values equal to the default values.
This means that you should set a left margin of 0 and right
margin of 136 in pica pitch.

If you change the pitch of your printing after you set your
margins, the margins will not change. They stay at the same
place on the page. So if you set the margins to give you 65 col­umns of printing when you are using pica type, then you change
to elite type you will have room for more than 65 columns of
elite printing between the margins.

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL TABS

Suppose you need to move across the page to a certain posi­tion several times in a document. It’s not much fun to type in
space after space. And you don’t have to - you can “tab” your
way across the page.

Your printer’s tabs are like those on a typewriter, but much

more powerful. You have both horizontal and vertical tabs

which can be used for both text and graphics - and they’re real­ly handy for indenting paragraphs and making tables.

I

I

/

n Horizontal tabs

Horizontal tabs are set automatically every eight positions. To

move the print head to the next tab position, send CHR$(S).

Try this program to see how the default tabs work.

Demo of horizontal tabbing

10 ’

20 LPRINT

“ONE”;CHR$ (9) ; “TWO”;CHR$ (9) : “THREE”;CHR$ (9) ;

“FOUR”

Here’s what you should get-

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

Even though the words are different length, they are spaced

out evenly by the horizontal tabs.

Now add the following line to your program to set different

horizontal tabs:

,
.

65

15 LPRINT CHR$(27);“D”;CHR$(7);CHR$(l4);CHR$(21);

CHRS(O) ;

(ESC)“D” is the command to begin setting horizontal tabs. It
must be followed by characters representing the positions that
you want the tabs set. In our program we are setting tabs in col­umns 7, 14, and 21. The CHR$(O) at the end ends the string of
tabs. In fact, any character that is not greater than the previous
one will stop setting tabs. This means that you must put all your
tab values in order, from least to greatest, or they won’t all get
set.

When you run the program now it produces this:

ONE

TWO THREE FOUR

The words are now closer together, but still evenly spaced.

To reset the default tabs, use the following program:

LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “eO”CHR$ (8)

This command sets the horizontal tab to every eight columns.

Table 6-6

Horizontal tab commands

Function

Advance to next tab position

Set tabs at nl, n2, etc.
Set tabs every n columns

Control code

CHR$@)
(ESC)“D”CHR$(nl)

CHR$(nZ).....CHR$(O)

(ESC) “e” 0 CHR$(n)

n One-time horizontal tabs

Suppose you need to move to a position across the page, but
you only need to do it once. It doesn’t make much sense to set
up a tab to use only one time. There must be an easier way ­and of course there is.

The solution is called a one-time tab. Table 6-7 show the three
commands.

66

Table 6-7

One-time horzontal tabs

Function

One-time horizontal tab of n spaces

Absolute horizontal tab
Relative horizontal tab

Control cde

(ESC) “f” 0 CHR$(n)
(ESC) “$” CHR$(nl) CHR$(nZ)
(ESC) “\” CHR$(nl) CHR$(nZ:

The first command in Table 6-7 moves the print head n col­umns to the right. It has the same effect as sending n spaces to
the printer.

The absolute horizontal tab command moves the print head to

a specified position on the page. The position that you want the

print head to move to (measured from the left margin) is
specified by the values of nl and nZ in l/60-inch units using the

formula nl + n2 X 256.

Try this program to see how this works.

10 ’ Demo of absolute horizontal tabs

20 FOR I=60 TO 70 STEP 2

30 LPRINT I ; “+++tt” ;
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);“$“;CHR$(I);CHR$(O);
50 LPRINT “Horizontal tab.”

60 NEXT I

70 END

-

-

In this program, the print head is positioned before the “H” in

“Horizontal” is printed.

60 +++++ Horizontal tab.

62 +++++ Horizontal tab.

64 +++++ Horizontal tab.

66 +++++ Horizontal tab.

68 +++++
70 +++++

Horizontal tab.

Horizontal tab.

The relative horizontal tab command can move the print head
right from the current position. The formula for calculating how
much the print head moves is the same as in the absolute
horizontal tab command. However, the units by which the print
head actually moves vary with the print style you are using.
Table 6-8 shows the various options.

Table 6-8

Units of motion for the relative horizontal tab command

67

Print style

Draft characters
LQ characters
LQ proportional characters

Unit of motion

l/120-inch
l/MO-inch
l/360-inch

Try this program to see how this works.

10 ' Deso of relative horizontal tabs

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO";
30 LPRINT "Draft characters"
40 GOSUB 120
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xl";
60 LPRINT "LQ characters"

70 GOSUB 120
80 LPKINT CHR$(27);"pl";
90 LPRINT "LQ proportional"

100 GOSUB 120

110 END

120 LPRINT "Relative";

130 LPRINT CHR$(27);"\";CHR$(4O);CHR$(O);

140 LPRINT "Horizontal":

150 LPRINT CHR$(27);"\";CHR$(20);CHR$(O);

160 LPRINT "Tab."

170 LPRINT

180 RETURN

Draft character-s
Relative

Horiaonta1 Tab.

LQ characters
Relative Horizontal Tab.

LQ proportional
Relative HorizontalTab.

n Vertical tabs

Vertical tabs have the same kinds of uses that horizontal tabs
do -theyjustworkinthe other direction.Horizontaltabs allow
you to reach a specific column on the page no matter where you
start from. Vertical tabs are the same. If you have a vertical tab

68

set at line 20, a vertical tab (or <VT>) will move you to line 20
whether you start from line 5 or line 19.

The vertical tab is not set at the power-on default. If you send
a CHR$(ll), which is the ASCII code for < VT > , before we
have set up tabs advance the paper one line. Enter this program
to see how this works.

10 ’ Demo of vertical tabs
40 LPRINT CHR$( 11) ;“FIRST TAB.”
50 LPRINT CHR$(ll);“SECOND TAB.”
60 LPRINT CHR$ (11) ; “THIRD TAB. *’
70 LPRINT CHR$(ll);“FOURTH TAB.”

Now, let’s set some vertical tabs of our own. Add these lines

to the program:

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);“B”;CHR$(lO);CHR$(15);
30 LPRINT CHR$(25);CHR$(30);CHR$(O);

(ESC)“B” is the command to set vertical tabs. Like the
horizontal tab setting command, tab positions must be defined
in ascending order. Our example sets vertical tabs at lines 10,
15,25 and 30. Then the CHR$(ll) in each of the following lines
advances the paper to the next vertical tab. The printout is
shown below.

FIRST TAB.

SECOND TAB.

THIRD TAB.

FOURTH TAB.

69

Add one more line to the program to demonstrate one more

feature of vertical tabs.

80 LPRINT CHR$(ll):"FIFTH TAB."

Now when you run the program the first page looks just like
before, but line 80 sends one more <VT > than there are tabs.
This doesn’t confuse your printer - it advances the paper to the
next tab position which happens to be the first tab position on
the next page. That’s nice, isn’t it?

There’s a one-time vertical tab command that works just like

the one-time horizontal tab command. Try this program how
these command work.

Demo of print positions

10 '

20 LPRINT

w* 1st Line, 1st Column"
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"fl";CHR$(S);
40 LPRINT

w* 4th Line, 1st Column"
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"fO";CHR$(7);
60 LPRINT

'** 5th Line, 7th Column"

70 LPRINT CHR$(27);"fl";CHR$(3);
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"fO*';CHR$(5);
90 LPRINT

))* 8th Line, 5th Column"

100 END

In this program, line 30 sends a one-time vertical tab with

(ESC) “f” 1 command. Line 50 sends a one-time horizontal tab
with (ESC) “f” 0 command. Finally, line 70 and line 80 send
one-time vertical tab and one-time horizontal tab, so the line 90
prints text at the specified position.

* 1st Line, 1st Column

* 4th Line, 1st Column

* 5th Line, 7th Column

* 8th Line, 5th Column

70

Table 6-9

Vertical tab commands

Function

Advance paper to next tab position
Set vertical tabs at nl, n.2, etc.
Set vertical tabs every n lines

One-time vertical tab

Control code

CHR$(ll)

(ESC)“B”CHR$(nl)

CHR$(nZ).....CHR$(O)

(ESC) “e” 1 CHR$(n)
(ESC) “f’ 1 CHR$(n)

W Vertical tab channels

Vertical tab channels are especially helpful in two situations.

The first occurs when you are writing a program to accompany

a preprinted form that can accommodate various types of
responces. The second occurs when you create a multipage
form or report with different vertical tabs on each page.

Table 6-10

Vertical tab channel commands

Function

Set vertical tabs at nl, ~2, etc.
as channel nO
Select vertical channel nO

Control code

(ESC)“b”CHR$(nO) CHR$(nl)

CHR$(nZ).....CHR$(O)

(ESC)“I”CHR$(nO)

You can store up to eight channels of tab stops. They are

numbered from 0 to 7. If you have already stored a set using

(ESC)“B” command, your printer has labelled it as channel 0.

Try this program how to see the vertical tab channels work.

’ Demo of vertical tab channels

;: LPRINT CHR$(27);“b”;CHR$(1);CHR$(lO);CHR$(2O):

CHRS(O);

30 LPRINT CHR$(27);“b”;CHR$(2);CHR$(l5);CHR$(25);

CHRS(O);

40 LPRINT CHR$(27

);“b”;CHR$(3);CHR$(17);CHR$(28);

CHRS(O) ;

50 ’ Use vertical

tab channels

60 FOR I=1 TO 3

70 LPRI NT “TOP OF

FORM”
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);“/“;CHR$(I);
90 LPRINT CHR$(ll);

100 LPRINT “1ST TAB OF CHANNEL”; I

110 LPRINT CHR$(ll);

-

-

-

120 LPRINT “2ND TAB OF CHANNEL’* ; I
130 LPRINT CHR$(12);
140 NEXT I
150 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“@”
160 END

When you run this program you should get like this.

71

TOP OF FORM

1ST TAB OF CHANNEL 1

ZND TAB OF CHANNEL 1

TOP OF FORH

1ST TAB OF CHANNEL 2

2ND TAB OF CHANNEL 2

I

TOP OF FORH

1ST TAB OF CHANNEL 3

ZND TAB OF CHANNEL 3

I

In this program we set tabs at 10 and 20 in channel 1 in line

20. In line 30 we set tabs 15 and 25 in channel 2, and in line 40
we set tabs 17 and 28 in channel 3.

Because the channels are stored, you must make the printer to
recall one before you use it, so we used (ESC)“I”CHR$(nO) in
line 80.

72

MEMO

CHAPTER 7

SPECIAL FEATURES OF

THE PRINTER

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 7 include-

* Printer’s bell;

l Master reset;
l Uni-directional printing;
l International character sets;
l Printing BIG characters;
l The optional sheet feeder;
l Reading a hex dump.

In the previous chapters we have learned about several
groups of control codes. In this chapter we will look at more con­trol codes. These codes don’t fit neatly into any of the groupings
that we have studied, but they add a lot of capability to your
printer. So here goes.

n Now hear this

You may have heard the printer’s bell if you have ever run out
of paper. And you may have wondered why it’s called a bell
when it beeps instead of ringing! It’s a long story that goes back
to the early days of computers, when teletype machines were us­ed for computer terminals. These mechanical marvels had a bell

in them that could be heard for blocks. This bell was used to
signal the operator that somethings needed attention. The code

that the computer sent to the teletype machine to ring the bell

was, reasonably enough, called a bell code. Well the name bell
code is still with us, even if the bell has changed to a beeper, and
a lot of people still call the beeper a bell, even if it doesn’t sound
like one. So with our trivia lesson out of the way, let’s see how
we can ‘“ring the bell”.

The code to sound the “bell” is CHR$(7), which is ASCII code

7 or (BEL). Any time your printer receives this code it will

sound the bell for a quarter of a second. This can be used to re-

mind an operator to change the paper or to make another adjust­ment to the printer.

You can try this by typing:

LPRINT CHR$(7)

n Resetting the printer

Up to now when we wanted to reset the printer to the power
on condition we have had to either turn the printer off and then
on again, or to send the specific codes that reset the particular
features. There is an easier way. The control code (ESC) “62”
will reset all of the printer’s features to the power on condition
(as determined by the DIP switches), with one exception. This
exception is that (ESC) “62” will not erase any characters that
you have stored in the printer’s RAM memory.

In addition, if you set the “Panel” modes by the control panel
settings at the power on, these functions will be remain with this
control code.

n Putting your printer to sleep

You know how to put your printer off line with the On Line
key on the control panel. Your printer has another off line state
that can be controlled from your computer. When you turn the

printer off line from your computer, this printer will ignore
anything that you send it, except for the code to go on line again.
CHR$(lS) is the code to turn your printer off line; CHR$(17)
turns your printer to on line status.

n Printing the bottom of the sheet

Sometimes when you are using individual sheets of paper you
may want to print near the bottom of a sheet. The paper-out
detector usually stops the printer when you are about 1 inch
from the bottom of the sheet. This is notify you if you are run­ning out of continuous paper.

Your printer has the ability to print right to the bottom of the

sheet. You can disable the paper-out detector so that it doesn’t

stop the printer. This will allow you to print to the end of the
sheet, and even beyond if you are not careful. The codes to con­trol the paper-out detector, along with the other codes that we
have just learned are in the following table.

Table 7-1

Some miscellaneous commands

. _~, ,.

75

Function

Sound bell

Master reset (ESC) “@”

---

I Off line

I On line

Paper-out detector off
Paper-out detector on

move mint head back one snace 1 CHI

.

Delete last character sent

Cancel text in print buffer
1 Immediate-mint on
1 Immediate-mint off

Cotitrol code

CHRW)

’ --lR$(19)

I CH

I CHI

@x17)

(ESC) “8”
(ESC) “9”

W8)

CHR$( 127)
CHR$(24)

’ .pSC) “i”1

I (E
I (ESC) “i”f 1

Add n dot spaces between characters 1 (ESC) CHR$(32) CHR$(n)

1 (ESC > “V” CHR$(n)

Repeat characters

CHR$(ml) ... CHR$(mx)

(ESC) “V” CHR$(O)

n Backspace, delete, and cancel text

Backspace (CHR$@)) “backs up” the printhead so that you
can print two characters right on top of each other. Each time
your printer receives a backspace it moves the printhead one
character to the left, instead of to the right. You can St&e over
multiple letters by sending more than one backspace code.

Delete (CHR$(127)) also “backs up” one character, but then it

“erases” the previous character (it’s erased from your printer’s

buffer, not from the paper).

Cancel text (CHR$(24)) deletes all the text in the print buffer;
that is, in the line before the delete text command. Since your
printer prints one line of text at a time, only that line will be

deleted.

The following program shows how these codes works.

10 ’

Backspace, delete, and cancel line

20 LPRINT “BACKSPACE DOES NOT”;

30 LPRINT CHR$(S);CHR$(S);CHR$(8);

40 LPRINT **=== WORK”
50 LPRINT “DELETE DOES NOT”;
60 LPRINT CHR$(127);CHR$(127);CHR$(l27);

70 LPRINT “WORK”
80 LPRINT “CANCEL LINE”;

76

I

90 LPRINT CHR$(24);

100 LPRINT "DOES NOT WORK"

Here is what this program will print:

BACKSPACE DOES NM WORK
DELETE DOES WORK
DOES NOT WORK

The backspace codes in line 30 move the printhead a total of
three spaces to the left so that the first part of line 40 will over­print the word “NOT”. The delete codes in line 60 “erase” the
three letters in the word “NOT” so that it doesn’t even print.

In line 90, CHR$(24) deletes the words in line 80. The
semicolon at the end of line 80 prevents a line feed from causing
that line to print before the printer receives the CHR$(24) code.
The text in line 100 prints as it normally would because it is
after CHR$(24).

n Immediate-print

This printer can print at fine rate of 250 characters per sec­ond. But it will also print more slowly at the speed of your typ­ing. In immediate-$rint mode, the printhead prints one character
at a time, as you send it. This printer also moves the paper up so
that you can see the current line and then down to continue
printing.

You can turn immediate-print mode on with (ESC) “i” 1. But
before looking at it, let’s review the normal operation of the
print buffer. Enter this program.

20 A$="" :INPLJT

w TYPE A CHARACTER ",A$
30 IF A$="" THEN 50
40 LPRINT A$; : GOT0 20
50 LPRINT

: LPRINT CHR$(27);"@"

Now type several characters, and after each press the
RETURN key. True to form, the printer just stuffs the
characters into its buffer while it waits for a carriage return
code. (In this program the RETURN key doesn’t send a car-

77

riage return code.) To end this program and print the contents
of the buffer, press RETURN alone.

Now add this line:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;"il";

And RUN the program. Your printer responds to your typing -

immediately.

When you are finished, press RETURN alone.

n Adjusting the width of space between characters

This printer provides a command that adjusts the space be­tween all the characters that it prints when the DIP switch 2-2 is
set off. The (ESC) CHR$(32) CHR$(n) command adds blank
space between the characters. The units of space that are added
vary depending on the current print style, as shown in Table 7-

2.

Table 7-2

Unit of adjusting space width

Print style 1 Unit of motion

Draft characters 1 l/120-inch

1 LQ characters

1 l/MO-inch

1 LQ proportional characters 1 l/360-inch

Try this program to see how this works.

Demo of adjusting spaces

10 '

20 FOR I=5 TO 1 STEP -1
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);” “;CHR$(I);
40 LPRINT "This line is added";I;"spaces."

50 NEXT I

60 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;” “;CHR$(O) ;

70 LPRINT "This line is Normal space."
80 END

This line is

This line is added 4 spaces.
This line is added 3 spaces.
This line is added 2 spaces.
This line is added 1 spaces.
This line is Normal space.

added 5 spaces.

I

78

This command can be used to produce micro-justification,

which is a method of justifying lines by increasing the space be-

tween each character.

n Repeat characters

This printer has a command that automatically repeats

characters for you. Try this program to see how it works.

10 '

Demo of character repeat

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"V";CHR$(4);
30 LPRINT "This line shows Repeat characters."
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"V";CHR$(O);
50 LPRINT "And this is not."

60 END

In this program, line 20 selects the 4 times repeat with (ESC)
7” CHR$(4) command. And line 30 sets the characters for
repeating. Then line 40 terminates this command with (ESC)
“V” CHR$(O). The results from this program look like this.

This line shows Repeat characters.

This line shows Repeat characters.

This line shows Repeat characters.
This line shows Repeat characters.
And this is not.

n Uni-directional printing

Uni-directional printing is a big word that means printing in

~lle direction only. Your printer normally prints when the print­head is moving in both directions. But once in a while you may
have an application where you are more concerned about how
the vertical lines align than with how fast it prints. This printer
lets you make this choice. The table below shows the commands
for controlling how this printer prints.

Table 7-3

Printing direction commands

Function

Print in one direction
Print in both directions
One time print in one direction

Control code

(ESC)“U"l
(ESC) “U"0
(ESC) “("

,

L

Try this program to see the difference that printing in one

direction makes.

Uni-directional printing

10 ’
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);“A”;CHR$(6);
30 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“2”;
40 FOR I=1 TO 10
50 LPRINT ” I ”
60 NEXT I

70 LPRINT :LPRINT
80 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“Ul”;
90 FOR I=1 TO 10

100 LPRINT “I ”
110 NEXT I
120 LPRINT CHR$(12);CHR$(27);“@”

Here is what you will get. The top line is printed bi-directional­ly, and the bottom is printed uni-directionally. You will have to
look hard because there isn’t much difference.

Let’s analyze the program. Line 20 defines the line spacing to
6/60 of an inch so that the characters that we print will touch top
to bottom, and line 30 activates the definition. Lines 40 - 60
print 10 vertical line characters. Then line 80 sets one-direction
printing and the vertical lines are printed again. Finally line 120
sends a form feed to advance the paper to the top of a new page,
and then uses the master reset to restore the printer to the

8n

power on condition.

You can also set the printer to print in one direction for one
line only by using the (ESC) “(” command. This command im­mediately moves the printhead to the left margin and then
prints the remainder of the line from left to right.

H The seven bit dilemma

Certain computers (but not the IBM-PC fortunately!) don’t
have the capability to send eight bits on their parallel interface.
They can only send seven bits. This would make it impossible
for these computers to use this printer’s block graphics
characters and special symbols if our engineers hadn’t thought
of a solution. (All of these characters have ASCII codes greater
than 127 which means that the eighth bit must be on to use
them.) The solution lies in the three control codes given in the
following table:

Table 7-4

Eighth bit controls

H Block graphics characters and special symbols

Besides the upper and lower case letters and symbols that we
are by now familiar with, your printer has a whole different set
of characters that are for special uses. These characters include
block graphics for drawing forms and graphs, and special sym­bols for mathematical, engineering and professional uses. The
special characters are included in two character sets. The
character set you normally use is called character set #l. The
special characters are printed out when you send ASCII codes

160-255 to the printer.

Your printer also offers character set #2 which is almost the
same as character set #1 except for the addition of ASCII codes
3-6,21, and 128-159. Character set #2 is selected with (ESC)
“6”; to go back to character set #1, use (ESC)“7”.

You can also specify the power-on default character set by set-

ting DIP switch l-5 on for character set #1 and off for character

set #2 while the DIP switch 2-2 is set on. The following program

will print out all of the graphics characters available:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"0";
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"6";
30 FOR J=3 TO 6
40 LPRINT '*

";J;CHR$(J);CHR$(9);
50 NEXT J
60 LPRINT '* 21 ";CHR$(21)

70 LPRINT
80 FOR J=128 TO 254 STEP 5
90 FOR I=J TO J+4
95 IF I>254 THEN 110

100 LPRINT I;CHR$(I);CHR$(9);

110 NEXT I

120 LPRINT :LPRINT

130 NEXT J

Figure 7-l shows what this program will print. If your chart
doesn’t look like this because it has regular letters and numbers
instead of the special symbols, then your computer is only using
seven bits (unless you have set DIP switches 2-2 and 2-5 off by
mistake). You can get the correct printout by changing line 100
to this:

100 LPRINT I;CHR$(27);">";CHR$(I);CHR$(27);"=";CHR$(g);

I_

. .

. .

e..

So how are all of these strange characters used? Here is a
short program that demonstrate how the graphics characters

can be combined to create a figure: the 5 of clubs.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"6";

20 LPRINT CHR$(218);CHR$(196);CHR$(l96);CHR$(l96);

CHR$(196);CHR$(196);CHR$(l91)

30 LPRINT CHR$(179);CHR$(53);CHR$(32);CHR$(32);

CHR$(32);CHR$(32);CHR$(l79)

40 LPRINT CHR$(179);CHR$(32);CHRSo;CHR$(32);CHR$(5);

CHR$(32);CHR$(179)

50 LPRINT CHR$(179);CHR$(32);CHR$(32);CHR$(5);

CHR$(32);CHR$(32);CHR$(l79)

60 LPRINT CHR$(179):CHR$(32);CHR$(5);CHR$(32);CHR$(5);

CHR$(32);CHR$(179)

70 LPRINT CHR$(179);CHR$(32);CHR$(32);CHR$(32);

CHR$(32);CHR$(53);CHR$(179)

80 LPRINT CHR$(192);CHR$(196);CHR$(l96);CHR$(l96);

CHR$(196);CHR$(196);CHR$(217)

90 LPRINT CHR$(27);"7"

82

3v

128 5;

133 A

138 &
143 A
148 ii
153 ij
158 pt
163 13
168 i
173 i
178 1
183 1
188 3

193 -l­198 f=

203 ii=

4+

129 ii
134 a
139 i;

144 E
149 b
154 ii

159 f
164 A
169 c

174 a

179 1

184 1

189 J,
194 T

ILgg It

204 11

5+
130 6
135 c
140 i
145 ae
150 G
155 c
160 B
165 N
170 7
175 >>
180 1
185 jl

190 d
195 t

200 I!=
205 =

64
131 6
136 6
141 1
146 E
151 ii
156 f
161 i

166 B
171 +

176 III
181 j

186 II
191 1

196 -

201 r

206 jl

21 §

132 g
137 ti

142 A

147 6
152 y
157 v
162 6
167 Q

172 +

177 1

182 II
187 il

192 L
197 t

202 -'L

207 r
208 JL
213 r
218 r
223 ­228 C
233 8
238 E
243 I
248 O
253 2

209 $
214 r

219 4

224 a

229 CJ

234 i-2
239 n
244 f
249 l

254 .

210 T
215 -f
220 g
225 B
230 /A
235 6
240 E
245 J
250 -

L

Figure 7-1. Character set #2

211 IL
216 f
221 1
226 I'
231 'c
236 co
241 f
246 f
251 $

212 b

217 -)

222 [

227 T

232 9

237 8

242 2

247 =

252 n

83

If you have a 7-bit interface, add the following lines to the pro-

gram given above:

15 LPRINT CHR$(27);">";
95 LPRINT CHR$(27);"="

In this program line 10 selects character set #2 so that all the
graphics characters can be used (including the “club” symbol).
Then lines 20-80 print the 5 of clubs figure. Line 90 cancels
character set #2 (which is the same as selecting character set
#l).

Here is what this program prints:

n International character sets

Your printer is a multi-lingual printer for it can speak in

eleven languages! Your printer changes languages by changing

12 characters that are different for the different languages.

These sets of characters are called international character sets.
The control codes to select the international character sets are
given in Table 7-5.

Table 7-5

International character set commands

84

The characters that change are shown

code in Table 7-6.

Table 7-6

International character

n Printing BIG characters

You can even enlarge your character sets for attention-grabb­ing headings or special effects. There are two commands you
can use. Everything following any of them will be enlarged as
shown below, until the cancel code is entered.

beneath their ASCII

sets

-

Table 7-7

Big character commands

Function

Double-high enlarged print
Quad-high enlarged print
Cancel enlarged print

Try this program to see the big characters.

’ BIG character

10

Control code

(ESC)“h”CHR$(l)
(ESC)“h”CHR$(2)
(ESC)“h”CHR$(O)

20 LPRINT: LPRINT

30 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “-1” ;

40 LPRINT “THIS IS “;

50 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(l):

60 LPRI NT “DOUBLE” ;

70 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“h”:CHR$(O) ;
80 LPRINT

” SIZED PRINTING.”

90 LPRINT “THIS IS “;

100 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(2);
110 LPRI NT “QUAD” ;
120 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(O) ;
130 LPRINT
140 LPRI NT CHR$ (27) ; “-0”

When you run this program, you will get like this:

” SIZED PRINTING.”

-DOUBLE

THIS IS

SIZED PRINTING.

QUAD SIZED PRINTING .

As you can see, when the big character command is used, the
baseline for each character does not align. When you want to
align the baseline, try this program:

10 ’ Demo of aliging big characters
20 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ; “-1” ;
30 LPRINT “THIS IS “;
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);“j”;CHR$(24);
50 LPRINT CHR$(27) :“h”;CHR$( 1) ;
60 LPRI NT “DOUBLE” ;

70 LPRINT CHR$(27) :“h”;CHR$(O) ;
80 LPRINT ” SIZED PRINTING.”
90 LPRINT :LPRINT :LPRINT

100 LPRINT “THIS IS “;

110 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;“j”;CHR$(72) ;

120 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(2):

130 LPRI NT “QUAD” ;

140 LPRINT CHR$(27);“h”;CHR$(O) ;

150 LPRINT ” SIZED PRINTING.”

160 LPRI NT CHR$ (27) ; “-0”

When you run this program, you will get like this:

86

THIS IS

THIS IS

n g-pin graphics emulation mode

As you had learned in Chapter 2, this printer has a unique 9-

pin graphics emulation mode.

You can select this mode with a control code - (ESC)“g”.
After you’ve entered into the g-pin graphics emulation mode,
following commands work in the same manner for the g-pin
printers, as shown below:

(ESC)“A” n - Sets or defines line spacing to n/72 inch.
(ESC)“3” n
(ESC>“J” n
(ESC)“j” n - Sends a one-time reverse feed of n/216 inch.

In addition, the relationship between the dot graphics data
and the pins in the print head will be changed to suit for g-pin
printers.

Note: You must turn off the power switch to cancel this mode.

DOUBLE

SIZED PRINTING.

QUAI) SIZED PRINTING

- Sets line spacing to n/216 inch.

- Sends a one-time paper feed of n/216 inch.

.

n The optional sheet feeder

The automatic sheet feeder is a handy option that feeds single
cut sheets automatically. Work done on cut sheets looks better
that done on computer paper, and you don’t have to tear the
“ears” off each sheet as you must with fan-fold paper.

The automatic sheet feeder feeds a new sheet automatically
every time the printer receives or generates a form feed. Any
time you wish, you can turn the auto-feed unit on and off by
using control codes.

Table 7-8

Automatic sheet feeder commands

Function

Select automatic feed mode

Cancel automatic feed mode

Insert paper from first bin
Insert paper from second bin
Eject paper

Control code

(ESC)CHR$(25) CHR$(4) or “((4))”

(ESC)CHR$(25) CHR$(O) or “((0))”

(ESC)CHR$(25) CHR$(l) or “((1))”

(ESC)CHR$(25) CHR$(2) or “((2))”

(ESC)CHR$(25)“R” or “((R))”

87

When the automatic sheet feeder is installed, you must set the

DIP switch 2-4 on to detect the paper-out condition.

In addition, following functions are ignored when the auto-

matic sheet feeder is installed:

Setting of the page length
Top and bottom margins
Vertical tab settings

Caution: The five-character commands (e.g. “((0))“) work as the

.

.

automatic sheet feeder control codes whenever the automatic
sheet feeder is mounted on the printer (e.g. LLISTing).
On the other hand, the automatic sheet feeder is not mounted on
the printer, those five characters are printed as regular
characters.

n Reading a hex dump

We’ve seen how to make a hex dump in Chapter 2, but it’s not
really clear what we can do with one. We need a little
background first.

The BASIC in some computers changes ASCII codes before
they send them to the printer. If you run into problem because
of this, try this hex dump to check the ASCII codes.

First turn off the printer and run the following program. Hold
down both the Paper Feed key and Mode key and turn on the
printer.

; L.

10 FOR I=0 TO 255

20 LPRINT CHR$(I)

30 NEXT I
40 LPRINT
50 END

L

If your system passes the codes directly to the printer without
changing them, you will get like this. (You can print out the last
remaining line in the print buffer by putting the printer off line
with the On Line key.)

Most BASICS, however, are not quite that straight forward.

For example, the IBM-PC prints like the following.

Notice that your printer is receiving decimal code 13 (hex OD)
is coming with hex OA, which is really decimal 10. In addition,
your printer does not receive decimal code 26 (hex 1A).

Your printer prints hex numbers 16 per line, with printing the
characters on the right side. If it receives less than 16, it sits in a
holding pattern, awaiting more data. Taking the printer off line
dumps the characters to the paper.

To debug a program quickly, just use the hex dump capabili­ty. Appendix B will help you translate the hex codes to ASCII
equivalents.

-

-

-

CHAPTER 8

CREATING YOUR

OWN CHARACTERS

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 8 include-

* Designing your own characters;

l Printing your own characters;
l Print mode and the download characters.

In the previous chapters of this manual you’ve learned how to
control the printer to give dozens of different typefaces. By us­ing various combinations of pitches, character weights, and font
selections, you can create nearly any effect you want to in text.
And with international character sets and the special text and
big characters described in Chapter 7, you can print almost any
character you think of.

But if “almost any character” isn’t good enough for you, then
it’s a good idea you have this printer! With it you can actually
create your own characters. As you’ll see in this chapter,

download characters can be used to print a logo, special

characters for foreign languages, scientific and professional ap­plications, or any other specific printing task.

DOT MATRIX PRINTING

In order to create download characters, you’ll need some
understanding of how dot matrix printers work. The process is
called dot-matrix printing because each character is composed
of small dots arranged on a matrix, or grid. To see how that
character grid gets printed, you need to take a look at the print
head itself.

The printhead in this printer contains 24 wires apparently ar­ranged in a vertical column. If you were to remove the print
head and look at the wires, you would see two staggered col­umns of twelve wires. However, the timing is such that they
print as one continuous column of 24 wires.

90

Figure 8-1 shows an enlarged schematic view of the front of
the printhead, showing the ends of the wires and their relation­ship to the draft characters. As you can see, the capital letters
use the top eighteen wires of the printhead, and the descenders
(such as the lower case “p” shown) use the bottom eighteen
pins. As the printhead moves across the page (in either direction

- that’s what is meant by bi-directional printing) it prints one
column of dots at a time. Each time a dot is supposed to print an
electromagnet inside the printhead causes the appropriate wire
to strike the ribbon (making this printer an impact printer).

3

O0
O0
O0
O0
O0

-

O0

O0
O0

0
OO
OO

?igure 8-l. As the printhead moves across the page, each of the

wires prints one row of dots.

THE PRINT MATRIX

All of the standard characters that this printer prints are form­ed from patterns of dots that are permanently stored in the
printer’s ROM (read-only memory). This includes all of the
standard ASCII characters, and special characters, the interna­tional character sets, and the LQ characters.

91

But there is another area of memory in this printer reserved

for user-defined characters. These are characters that you can
design and download into the printer. When download
characters are defined they are stored in RAM(random access
memory), which allows you to define or modify them at any
time.

Each of these draft characters, whether it is from the standard
ROM or in download RAM, is constructed on a grid which is
five “boxes” by twenty-four “boxes” high. In addition, a dot can
straddle any of the vertical lines. As an example, take a look at
the enlarged “9” superimposed on the grid in Figure 8-2. As you
can see, some dots are inside the boxes, and some are centered
on the vertical lines. This, in effect, makes the character grid 9
dots wide by 24 dots high.

Figure 8-2.

Dots can be inside boxes or straddle the vertical lines

of the grid.

DEFINING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS

You’ve seen how these characters are designed by using a

grid to layout the dots. Now you can define characters exactly

92

the same way. Make up some grids (photocopy Figure 8-3 if you
wish) and get ready to be creative! (Just in case you are not feel­ing creative, and to make our explanations a little clearer, we’ll
be using a picture of an automobile as an example of a draft
download character. You can see how we’ve laid it out in Figure

8-4. Later in this chapter we’ll use this character to create a
small graph.)

1st

byte

Figure

2nd

byte

J

3rd

byte

i

8-3.

128

64
32 32
16 16

8 8

4 4

2 2
1 1

OL

16

8
4
?

Use this grid (or one similar to it) to define your own

ASCII code:

Left space:
Right space:

Data
1st:
2nd:
3rd:
4th:
5th:
6th:
7th:
8th:
9th:

draft characters.

You’ll notice that Figure 8-3 includes a lot of information
around the grid. Don’t be intimidated; we’ll explain each item as
we come to it in our discussion of defining and actually printing
download characters.

n Rule 1: Dots cannot overlap

As you can see in Figure 8-4 our car has a nearly continuous
outline. But, you may ask, why not make it a really solid line and
print all the intermediate dots, as shown in Figure 8-5? Because
the dots that straddle the vertical lines in the grid actually

overlap those inside the boxes. If we tried to print overlapping

i