Star Micronics NP-IO User Manual

NP-IO

USER’S MANUAL

NOT INTENDED FOR SALE

[ PN 80820191]

Federal Communications Commission

Radio Fre

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

uency Interference

s

tatement

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:

*Reorient the receiving antenna
*Relocate the cornouter with resoect to the receiver
*Move the computkr away from ‘the receiver
*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.

Self Declaration

Radio interferences regarding this equipment has been eliminated according to Vfg
1046/1984 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.

Trademark Acknowledgement

NP-10: Star Micronics Co., Ltd.
Apple II : Apple computer Inc.
IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC: International Business Machines Corp.
Microsoft BASIC: Microsoft Corporation

NOTICE

*All 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.
*All 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

eatly appreciate being informed of them.

F

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

this manual.

@Kopyright 1986 Star Micronics Co., Ltd.

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Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Setting Up Your Printer

Locating the printer
Check the carton contents

Removing the printer cover
Removing the packing tube
Installing the ribbon 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
Testing the printer
Connecting the printer

Printing with BASIC

Some basics of BASIC

First steps

ASCII codes and the CHR$ function

Control codes

The escape codes

A note on command syntax

Some special kinds of text

Near Letter Quality characters
Italic printing
Underlining
Superscripts and subscripts

Changing the print pitch

Expanded print
Condensed print

Proportional printing
Making words stand out
Mixing print modes

1

7

19

Chapter 4

Formatting Text

Lines and line spacing

Starting a new line
Reverse line feeds
Changing the line spacing

Moving down the page without a carriage re-

turn

Page control

Form feed
Reverse form feed
Changing the page length

Top and bottom margins
Setting left and right margins
Horizontal and vertical tabs

Horizontal tabs
One-time horizontal tabs
Vertical tabs
Vertical tab channels

Centering and aligning text

37

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Chapter 5

Special Features of the Printer

59

Now hear this

Resetting the printer
Taking the printer off line
Printing the bottom of the sheet
Backspace, delete, and cancel text
Printing zeroes

Immediate-print
Adjusting the width of space between ­characters

Uni-directional printing

The seven bit dilemma

Block graphics characters and special symbols

International character sets
Printing characters in the control code area
Printing BIG characters
The macro control code
Reading a hex dump

Chapter 6

Download Characters and Dot
Graphics

Dot matrix printing

Designing your own characters

Defining proportional characters
Designing your own NLQ characters
User-designed dot graphics
Higher resolution graphics
More graphics programming tips

Redefining alternate graphics codes
g-pin graphics mode

79

Chapter 7

Appendix A DIP Switch Settings

Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D Function Codes

Caring for Your Printer

Cleaning the printer
Replacing the ribbon

Replacing the print head

Switch functions

ASCII Code Conversion Chart
Character Code Table

Commands to control print style

Font style controls
Font pitch controls
Special print modes

Controlling the vertical print position

Line feed and reverse line feed controls
Form feed and related commands
Top/bottom margins and vertical tabs

Controlling the horizontal print position

Download character commands
Dot graphics commands
Macro instruction commands

Other commands

95

101

105
107
115

Appendix E

Command Summary in Numeric
Order

161

---

Appendix F Technical Specifications
Appendix G The Parallel Interface

Functions of the Connector Signals

Index

165
169

173

CHAPTER I

SETTING UP YOUR

PRINTER

Subjects covered in Chapter 1 include-

. Choosing a suitable place for your printer

l Unpacking
l Setting up

LOCATING THE PRINTER

Give some thought to the best place to put the printer. Both
the printer and computer should be used in normal home sur­roundings. For best performance, we recommend:

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

producing appliances.

l Use it only in temperatures where you are comfortable.
l Avoid locations with dust, grease, or high humidity.
l Supply it “clean”

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

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

specified on the identification plate.

electricity. Don’t connect it to the

CHECK THE CARTON CONTENTS

Open the carton and check each item in the box against
Figure l-l to make sure that you have everything (there should
be four items).

igure l- 1.

Check to make sure you have all tour items: 1) Printer,

.._ . _. -

2) Paper separator, 3) Ribbon cartridge, and 4) User’s manual.

n 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.

To remove the cover, lift up the back of the cover to
disengage the two tabs at the front, then lift it off the rest of the
way. To replace the cover, slide the tabs in at the front and

lower it into place. Figure 1-2 shows the proper position and
movement for both removing and replacing the cover.

3

Figure 1-2.

Remove the printer cover by lifting carefully.

W Removing the packing tube

Figure 1-3.

Remove the protective tube from the carriage rail.

4

The printer is shipped with a protective spiral tube to keep
the print head from being damaged during shipping. This tube
must be removed before use. First, take off the printer cover.
The protective tube is split along its bottom side to allow easy
removal. Grasp one end of the spiral tube and firmly pull it up­ward and away from the carriage rail.

n Installing the ribbon cartridge

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

automatic threading. To fit or change the ribbon cartridge:

Ggure 1-4. Press the cartridge into place until the holding springs

snap into place.

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

2. 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.

3. Set the release lever to either single sheet (a) or
sprocket-feed paper (P).

I

-

-

Print

T. _- - _ __ .__

‘.igure l-5.

.l’o thread the ribbon, slide the print head carriage

_._ _

manually to the right or left, and the ribbon will slip down by itself into
its proper position.

4.

With the ribbon facing away from you, use the guide
holders as a fulcrum, and lightly press the cartridge
down until the two holder springs snap shut to hold the
cartridge firmly in place. See Figure l-4.

5.

Check that the cartridge fits so that the drive pins
engage the cartridge teeth, by turning the ribbon ad­vance knob. Advance the ribbon to take up any slack.

6.

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.

7.

Replace the printer cover.

6

-

MEMO

-

CHAPTER 2

GETTING TO KNOW

YOUR PRINTER

Subjects covered in Chapter 2 include-

* Parts of the printer - what they’re for and how

to use them

l Paper selection and loading
l Adjustment
l Testing printer operation

CONTROLS AND PARTS OF THE PRINTER

n Parts of the printer

PRINTER COVER - This protects the ribbon and the print
head from dust and dirt, and cuts down the sound of the printer.

PAPER SEPARATOR - This metal guide is used with
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 pins 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.
INTERFACE CONNECTOR - On the back of the printer,
this connector is used to connect your computer to the printer.

8
I

Pow\er cord

. . .

Figure 2- 1.

Front and rear views of the prmter.

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 three in­dicators and three keys on the control panel.

-

9

I

Figure 2-2. The control panel.

POWER INDICATOR - Glows orange when the power is

on. This indicator flickers when the printer runs out of paper
and when certain printer malfunctions occur.

NLQ KEY and INDICATOR - Changes the character style

(draft or NLQ) when the On Line indicator is off, and glows
green when the NLQ mode is selected.

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
get consecutive line feeds. If you push the On Line key while

holding this key, you can advance the paper to the top of the
next page or a new form.
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 between on line and off line.

n Extra functions

There are seven more functions that are not directly specified
on the control panel. You can access four of them by pressing
one particular key when you turn on the power; three others are
activated by pressing two control keys at once.

I

Figure 2-3.

Extra functions while turning on the printer.

We’ll explain about the “Panel” mode, which is powerful func-

tion of the printer. Some commercial software does not support

defining your own selections. In this case, use the “Panel”
mode.

Selection of the Panel Mode at power-on ensures that your
choices remain in effect until you turn the power off. This
means that the printer will ignore any codes sent by the soft­ware that you are using. The Panel Mode allows selection of the
character quality (Draft or NLQ).

If you want to set the Panel mode, press the NLQ key on the

control panel when you turn on the power. After a second, you
will hear a beep, and the ON LINE indicator will glow. If you
want to change the character, press the ON LINE key, press the
NLQ key once again to make your choice, and press the ON
LINE key again.

Forward micro-feed

Reverse micro-feed

I

* *

I

**

-

-

Form feed’

+*: Hold down
*: Press

Ggure 2-4.

You can set many functions by the combinations of the

control panel keys while in the Off Line mode.

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.

Paper Feed key - Forward micro-feed

NLQ key - Reverse micro-feed

3. When you can set the print start position, release the
Paper Feed key or the NLQ key first, then release the
On Line key.

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, like a typewriter.

Caution: Turn the platen knob only with the Power switch ~$5

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. 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 sprocket-feed paper, and the bot-

tom 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 is one set of eight switches that is

used in interfacing the printer to your particular computer.
There are also switches to set page length, and international
character set. See Appendix A for a complete list and explana-

tion.

i
E

SELECTING AND LOADING PAPER

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

The release lever controls the pressure of the paper against
the platen, It has four settings:

12 -

.wo

3 - The top setting is used when you want to load paper in

the printer.
P - The second setting is for normal single sheets.
C - The third is for sprocket-feed paper.

4lU - The bottom one is used when you want to release the

paper completely to adjust it.

Release lever

‘igure 2-5. Use friction feed for single sheets and tractor feed for

.

contmuous paper.

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.

n Loading single sheets

Instead of feeding the paper in manually by turning the platen
knob, you can use the release lever for automatic feeding (the
printer must be turned on). Single sheets from 5.5 to 8.5 inches
wide can be used:

1. Flip the clamp Levers backward and move the sprockets
on the tractor feed unit all the way to the ends.

-I

13

-.2

Figure 2-6. Move the sprockets on the tracktor feed unit all the

way to the ends.

2. Install the printer cover on the printer.

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

4. Insert a sheet of paper to the paper chute on the printer
cover.

5. Turn on the power switch. (The Power indicator will
blink because there is no paper.)

6. Now set the release lever to the auto-feed setting - the

top position. The printer will advance the paper
automatically.

7. When the paper stops, set the release lever for single

sheets again.

To align paper that is not in straight -

l 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.

14

Release lever

F

‘igure 2-7.

the release lever.

You can insert a sheet of paper automatically by using

n Loading sprocket-feed paper

This is standard 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 4.5 inches, and up to 10 inches wide.

1.

Remove the printer cover.

2.

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

3.

Turn on the printer and set the release lever for
sprocket-feed paper.

4.

Open the sprocket covers, on the right and left sprocket
units, as shown in Figure 2-8.

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.

Feed the end of the paper into the slot next to the platen

6.

cover plate.

Fit the holes in the paper over the sprocket pins so the

7.

paper is even, and clamp the sprocket units in place.

Figure 2-8. Open the sprocket covers to expose the sprocket teeth.

8. Check that the paper is still positioned correctly, and
close the sprocket covers.

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

10. When the paper stops, set the release lever for sprocket­feed paper again.

11. Install the paper separator on the printer, as shown in
Figure 2-9. Then, install the printer cover.

Figure 2-9. Ready to load the sprocket-feed paper

16

ADJUSTING THE PRINT HEAD

The distance between the print head and the platen must be
adjusted to accommodate papers of different thicknesses. To
make this adjustment, move the adjustment lever, which is
under the printer cover and immediately in front of the release
lever (Figure 2-10). Pulling the adjustment lever towards you
will widen the gap; pushing it away from you will narrow the

gap.

There are four positions; you can feel the lever clicking into
the various notches. The first step (shown) is the one most corn­monly used for single sheets of paper.

Try different positions until you get the best printing results.

Release lever

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

of paper.

TESTING THE PRINTER

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.

You can print the self-test without hooking up the printer to

your computer. Simply:

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:

Paper Feed key - Self-test 1 (long)
On Line key - Self-test 2 (short)

Self-test 1

I Standard mode I

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1 “~0%~‘O~+,-./0123Y567ES:;~-~T@~ECDEFGHIJKLnNoPDRSTUUWXYZC\l~~’~bcd~f~h~~klmno

?"I$Z&'Or+,-./Ol134S67~9~~~->?~~~CgEfgHlJKL~NOP~RS~UUU~YIC~3~~'abcdrfghi~kl~n~

[IBM

/1.,1L’;4w!7f39: ;~-~70~6CI)EF6H,Jt.LMNOPORSTUVWXYZL\I’~~ebcdc~gh..,k~~~,no

\7ePBCD~fGHlJbLMN*PU~~~"""~~iL-,,,'-'~b~~~fg,~~~~l~,,~

Self-test

Figure 2- 11. The show you the printer print.

When want to the long function, turn

the power

CONNECTING THE PRINTER

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

mains is to connect it to your computer as follows:

Interface (

Interface cable

Figure 2-12. Connect the cable like this.

1. Make sure that both your computer and printer are
turned 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 2-12.

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

CHAPTER 3

PRINTING WITH BASIC

Subjects covered in Chapter 3 include-

. Listing BASIC programs on the printer

l How a program prints things

l Control codes, escape codes, and command syn-

tax

l Near letter quality (NLQ) characters
l Fixed and proportional character spacing
l Special printing-

Printing in italics
Underlining
Superscripts and subscripts
Boldface and emphasized text
Mixing print modes

To show you how to control your printer from a program, we
have chosen BASIC because it is easy to learn and easy to use.
Also, more personal computer users program in BASIC than in
any other language.

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.
There are many excellent books that will teach you BASIC, so if
you discover that you like to program you should have no trou­ble learning more about it.

20

SOME BASICS OF BASIC

n 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

LPRINT more than just character strings.

We started with Microsoft BASIC because it is the most wide­ly used version of BASIC. 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 consider Apple 11 computers for a minute. These
popular computers use their own brand of BASIC. To use an
Apple II, enter the following-

PR#l PR#l
LIST PRINT "Hello!"
PR#O

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.

Now that we know how to address the printer, let’s try listing
a BASIC program. We will load a program into memory ready
to program printer operation - just as soon as we learn a little
bit about the ASCII codes.

n ASCII codes and the CHR$ function

You can talk to your computer in BASIC, but your computer
and your printer talk to each other in what are known as ASCII
codes. In the ASCII code, each number from 0 to 255 has a par­ticular meaning - 36, for example, makes the printer print a
dollar sign. Some numbers cause the printer to do other things,

too. For instance, sending a 7 sounds the printer’s bell.

Taken together, these numbers and their meanings make up
the ASCII code (pronounced ask-lzey), which stands for the

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. There are

ASCII codes for all the letters of the alphabet (upper case and
lower case), 0 to 9, most punctuation marks, and some (but not
all) of the functions of the printer.

There are a number of different ways to represent an ASCII
code, depending on how you are using it. For example, the
ASCII codes for the upper-case letter “A” are 65 (decimal) or
&H41 (hexadecimal). Or you can just call it “A”. Appendix B
shows all of the ASCII codes.

BASIC uses the CHR$ function to represent ASCII
characters and many functions. To print the letter “A” we

would enter LPRINT CHR$(65). To make the printer’s bell

sound, we would enter LPRINT CHR$(7). In general, we print a
character by entering LPRINT CHR$(ASCII code) to the

printer.

We can also use hex ASCII codes. Although we use only
decimal ASCII codes in this manual, in some applications it will
help if you understand what a hex code is. “Hex” is short for hex­adecimal and refers to a base-16 number (the numbers we use in
everyday life are base 10). Since the hex system needs 16 digits,
it uses the numerals 0 through 9 and also the letters A through
F. In BASIC programs, you can always tell that a number is in
hexadecimal by the “&H” immediately preceding it. The ASCII
code for the letter “A” (65 in decimal) is &H41 in hex.

n Control codes

ASCII codes with values of 32 or less do not correspond to
keys on the keyboard. These codes control many of the printer’s
functions, so we call them control codes. To enter a control code
from the keyboard, we have to press two keys at the same time

22

- the “control” key and one other. The other key determines

what code is sent - pressing the control (CTRL) key and A

sends ASCII code 1, CTRL B sends ASCII code 2, and so on.

Your printer has a lot of control codes to let you do some
useful things. Let’s try one that we’ve mentioned several times
already:

' Demo of ASCII code
:i LPRINT CJlR$(7)
30 END

RUN

That’s the printer’s bell (we call it that even though it sounds
like a buzzer). We’ll learn more about it in later - we just
wanted to show you a control code that would get your attention
right away!

There are four common ways of referring to a control code:
the name of the code or its abbreviation, the decimal ASCII
value, the hexadecimal ASCII value, and the “CTRL-” value.
For example, the ASCII code that causes the printer to advance
the paper one line is decimal 10. This code may be referred to
by any of the following:

line feed - the name of the code
(LF> - its abbreviation
ASCII 10 - its decimal value
ASCII &HOA - its hexadecimal value (the &H

signifies hex)
CHR$( 10) - the way it’s used in BASIC
CTRL- J

- the way you send it from a keyboard

Of course, most of the time we don’t need to bother with
these. The computer is smart enough to know that when we
press the “A” key we want to print the letter “A” - it takes
care of all the intermediate steps.

Appendix B is a table that shows the various names for each
code so you can convert back and forth. The microcomputer
world is not very consistent in describing ASCII codes, so it’s
important that you have a basic knowledge of them.

23

n The escape codes

Back when the ASCII system was set up, computer equip­ment 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
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 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, but 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 principle applies to com­mands ending with 0.

24

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

have the same result:

LPRINT CHR$(27);CHR$(87);CHR$(l)
LPRINT CHR$(27>;CHR$(87);CHR$(49)
LPRINT CHRS(27) ;"W";CHR$(l)

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

Even though there are many commands that require the use
of ASCII code 0 (the (NUL) character), the number “0” (zero or
ASCII code 48) cannot be substituted. In these cases, instead of
an unadorned 0 we will show CHR$(O) each time these com­mands are referenced.

That’s it for the basics. You are now ready to learn how to use
the many features of your printer.

SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF TEXT

If you looked carefully at your printer’s self test, you probably
noticed that it can print in italics. But that’s not all! Your printer
can underline characters, print superscripts and subscripts, and
perhaps most exciting, print near letter quality characters.

n Near Letter Quality characters

This printer’s Near Letter Quality (sometimes abbreviated as
NLQ) character set is ideal for correspondence and other impor­tant printing, as it produces very high quality characters. Nor­mally, your printer prints draft quality characters. This is ade­quate for most work and has the fastest printing speed. For the
final printout, try NLQ. The program below shows an example.

10 ' Demo of NLQ character set
20 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;"xl";
30 LPRINT "This line shows NEAR LETTER QUALITY!"
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO";
50 LPRINT "This line shows standard print."

25

In this program, line 20 selects NLQ characters with (ESC)
“x” 1 command. Line 30 prints a sample before line 40 switches
printer back to draft printing with an (ESC) “x” 0. When you
run the program you should get this:

Now turn off the power switch. After you turn on the power
switch while holding the NLQ key down on the control panel,
set the NLQ mode with the NLQ key while in the Off Line
mode. Then run the program again. You should get like this:

This line shows NEAR LETTER QUALITY!

This line shows standard print.

As you can see, now the printout only contains NLQ

characters. This is because we set the printer to the “Panel”
mode at power on, so the printer ignored the control codes to set

or cancel NLQ characters. This is a very useful way to print
NLQ characters if you are using a packaged software which
does not support the NLQ character mode.

Table 3-1

Near letter quality commands

Function Control code

Near letter quality ON

(ESC) “x” 1

Near letter quality OFF (ESC) “x” 0

W Italic printing

Italic letters are letters that are slanted to the right. Your

printer can print all of draft characters in italic as well as the
roman (standard) letters you are accustomed to. Italics can be
used to give extra emphasis to certain words. The commands to
turn italic on and off are shown in Table 3-2.

Table 3-2

Italic commands

Function

Italic ON
Italic OFF

Control code

(ESC) “4”
(ESC) “5”

Use this program to see italic characters:

10 ’ Demo of italic and roman

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"4";
30 LPRINT “This line is in ITALIC characters.”
43 LPRINT CHR$(27);"5";

50 LPRINT "This line is in ROMAN characters."

In this program, line 20 turns italic on with (ESC) “4”, and

line 40 turns italic off with (ESC) “5”.

n Underlining

Not only can your printer print all styles of printing in both

roman and italic, but it can underline them too. The control
codes are shown in Table 3-3.

Table 3-3

Underline commands

Function

Underline ON
Underline OFF

Control code

(ESC) “-” 1
(ESC) “-” 0

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

' Demo of underlining

10
20 LPRINT CHR$(~~) ;"-1";
30 LPRINT "This phrase is UNDERLINED;" ;
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"-0";

50 LPRINT

" this is not."

37

It should come out like this:

In this program underline is turned on in line 20 with (ESC)

“

-

” 1, and then off in line 40 with (ESC) “ -” 0. There’s a new
aspect to this program, though. The semicolons at the end of the
first three 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 italicize only part of a line.

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 even­ly with the tops of regular printing while subscripts print evenly
with the bottom of regular printing. They are frequently used to
reference footnotes, and in mathematical formulas.

Table 3-4 has the codes for using superscripts and subscripts.

Table 3-4

Superscripts and subscripts commands

Try this program to see them work:

’ Demo of superscripts and subscripts

10
20 LPRINT "Look' "*
30 LPRINT CHR$(;7)I"SO";
40 LPRINT "SUPERSCRIPTS ll;
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"T";
60 LPRINT "& 'I;
70 LPRINT CHR$(27);"Sl";
80 LPRINT "SUBSCRIPTS ";

I

28

90 LPRINT CHR$(27);"T";

100 LPRINT "on one line."

Here line 30 turns on superscripts with (ESC) “S” 0. It’s
turned off in line 50 with (ESC) “T”. Then between printing
text, subscripts are turned on in line 70 with (ESC) “S” 1, 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 most typewriters). This
works out to 80 characters per line.

You can also print 12 character per inch (elite pitch). This
gives you 96 characters per line.

You can set these pitches by software as shown in the table
below.

Table 3-5

Print pitch commands

Pitch

Pica
Elite

Characters/inch

10
12

Control code

(ESC) “P"

(ESC)“M"

Try this program to see how these two pitches work. Be sure
to set the printer to draft mode.

' Demo of pica and elite pitches

10

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";
30 LPRINT "This line is ELITE pitch."
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P";

50 LPRINT "This line is PICA pitch (normal)."

When you run this program you should get this:

This line is ELITE pitch.
"I'h:j.5 I. ii-162 is F':CCA pitch inormal ) .

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

r

c

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 ” printing.”

70 LPRINT “Notice that ‘I;

80 LPRINT CHR$(l4);
90 LPRINT "EXPANDED mode"

100 LPRINT “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.

30

Sometimes you may wish to stay in expanded print for more

than one line. Change your program to this:

' Demo of permanent expanded mode

10

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:

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

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

Table 3-6

Expanded print commands

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:

Demo of condensed print

10 '
20 LPRINT "Demonstration of ";
30 LPRINT CHR$(l5);
40 LPRINT "CONDENSED";
50 LPRINT CHR$(18);
60 LPRINT 11 printing."

c.

31

D (<<$ IT) (1;) 1-1 5; .k, r <>, ‘b, i [::j r)

CL) $

CONDENSED pr- i nt: 1 ng .

Condensed print set with CHR$(lS) stays on until you turn it
off with CHR$(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.

Table 3-7

Condensed print commands

Function Control code

Condensed ON
Condensed OFF

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

CHR$(18)

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 CHR$(27);"P";
60 LPRINT "This line is CONDENSED PICA pitch."

70 LPRINT CHR$(~~);
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";

90 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL ELITE pitch."

100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P";
110 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL PICA pitch."
120 LPRINT CHR$(27);"W1";
130 LPRINT CHR$(15);
140 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";
150 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED ELITE."
160 LPRINT CHRS(27);"P";
170 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED PICA."

180 LPRINT CHR$(18);
190 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";

200 LPRINT "This is EXPANDED ELITE."

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

32

220 LPRINT "This is EXPANDED PICA."
230 LPRINT CHR$(27);"WO"
240 END

Here’s what you should get from this program:

This line is CONDENSED ELITE pitch.
This line is CONDENSED PICA pitch.

n Proportional printing

Have you ever looked closely at the printing 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 printers), 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. Looking at these letters you see that a “w” is two or
three times as wide as an “i”.)

Well, you too can enjoy professional-looking proportional
printing. You can turn proportional printing on and off with the
following commands.

Try this program to see how the proportional spacing works.

Demo of proportional printing

10 '
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"M";
30 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL ELITE printing."

40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"pl";
50 LPRINT "This line is PROPORTIONAL ELITE."

60 LPRINT CHR$(27);"P";
70 LPRINT "This line is PROPORTIONAL PICA."

80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"pO";

90 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL PICA printing."

100 END

When you run this program you should get this:

Line 20 selects the elite pitch and line 40 turns on the propor­tional printing with (ESC) “p” 1. Line 50 prints a line with pro­portional elite pitch. Then, line 60 selects the pica pitch, so that
line 70 prints a line with proportional pica pitch. Finally, line 80
resets the proportional printing and line 90 prints a line in nor­mal pica pitch.

MAKING WORDS STAND OUT

Your printer has good print density when it’s just printing nor-

mally. But sometimes you may want something to stand out
from the rest of the page. This printer provides two ways to do
this: boldface and emphasized print. Both of these go over the
characters twice, but they use slightly different methods to
darken the characters. Let’s try them and see what the dif­ference is.

The following table shows the control codes for getting into

and out of boldface and emphasized modes.

34

-

Table 3-9

Print emphasis commands

Function

Boldface ON
Boldface OFF

Emphasized ON

Emphasized OFF

Control code

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

Try them now with this little program:

10 ' Demo of boldface and emphasized

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"G";
30 LPRINT "This line is BOLDFACE printing."
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"E";
50 LPRINT "This line is BOLDFACE and EMPHASIZED."
60 LPRINT CHR$(27);"H";

70 LPRINT "This line is EMPHASIZED printing."
80 LPRINT CHRS(27);"F";
90 LPRINT "This line is NORMAL printing."

Run this program. The results will look like this:

“rtaj i 5

1 i ne i 5 BULWFUCE pr-i nti ng .

This line is BOLDFACE and EMPHASIZED.
This line is EMPHASIZED printing.

1 'l-1 j, c; .I, j, r

I I... 3 :i Ei IN CJ I:;: lw l.“. 11) y” Ii. I”1 t I. l-1 q ”

-

Line 20 turns on boldface with (ES’C) “G” and line 30 prints a
line of text. In line 40 emphasized is turned on with (ESC) “E”.
Line 50 prints a line of text in boldface and emphasized. Line 60
then turns boldface off with (ESC) “H” so that line 70 can print
in emphasized only. Finally, line 80 turns emphasized off, so

your printer is set for normal printing.

Look closely at the different lines of printing. In the line of
boldface printing each character has been printed twice, and the
paper was moved up slightly the second time they were printed.
In emphasized printing, the characters are moved slightly to the
right the second time the printer prints. The second line combin­ed both of these so that each character was printed 4 times.

35

MIXING PRINT MODES

We have learned how to use the various print modes in­dividually 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

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 3-10 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 decimal values of the features
that you want to combine.

Table 3-10

Values of mixing print styles for Master Print

For example, if you want to select elite expanded boldface

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

Elite
Boldface

1

16

Expanded 32

n=

49

36

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. However, when two modes
that conflict are turned on at the same time, the printer must
choose which one to use.

For example, suppose you turn on both Elite and Emphasized
modes. These cannot combine, so the printer must make a
choice; in this case, the printer chooses Elite.

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 bit­wise is cancelled. For example, Condensed and Emphasiz­ed can not be printed at the same time, printing is Em-

phasized.

3) Elite cancels Emphasized.

4) Underline, Expanded and Italics modes combine with any
print modes.

5) Emphasized will not mix with Elite or Condensed.

CHAPTER 4

FORMATTING TEXT

Subjects covered in Chapter 4 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, top and bottom
l Centering and aligning

Chapter 3 showed us the basic techniques for 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 tells 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 codes, 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). Let’s begin with the carriage

return. Each time the printer receives a CHR$(13) it returns the
print head to the left margin. It does not advance the paper (if
DIP switch l-3 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
print head to the left margin, ready to start a new line.

Now to add a ittle confusion - most (but not all) versions of

BASIC add a line feed (CHR$(lO)) to every carriage return
(CHR$(13)) they receive. If your version of BASIC doesn’t do
this, then you should turn DIP switch l-3 off so that your printer
will add the line feed for you. When you have DIP switch l-3 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 l-3 on.

n Reverse line feeds

Your printer can move the paper up or down. The unique trac-

tor design allows the paper to be fed in either direction without
jamming. This allows you to move around the page at will. You

can use this feature to print several columns of text side by side,

or to print a graph and then move back up and insert descriptive

legends. As you experiment you’re bound to come up with more

uses!

The simplest form of reverse paper feeding is a reverse line
feed. The code is (ESC) (LF), which causes the paper to move
down (in effect, moving the printing up) one line. A “line” used
in a reverse line feed is the same size as a line in a regular line
feed (this is normally l/6 inch). When you change the line spac­ing (which you’ll read about next), both forward and reverse line
feeds change.

-

Table 4-1

Line feed commands

H Changing the line spacing

When you turn your printer on, the line spacing is set to 6
lines per inch. This is fine for most printing applications, but
when you want something different, the 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:

Demo of line spacing

10 '
20 FOR I=1 TO 20

30 IF I=13 THEN 60
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"A";CHR$(I);

50 LPRINT "THIS LINE SPACING IS SET TO";1

60 NEXT I

70 LPRINT "LINE SPACING IS SET TO l/6 INCH

(NORMAL) . "
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"2"
90 END

This is what you will get:

40

Line 40 changes the line spacing. The command (ESC) “A”

CHR$(n) changes the line spacing to n/72 of an inch. The loop
that is started in line 20 increases the value of n (the variable I in
this program) each time it is executed. So the line spacing in­creases as the program continues. Line 30 just shortcuts the
loop when I = 13, since BASIC won’t let us send CHR$(13)
without adding an unwanted CHR$( 10) to it. Finally, the (ESC)

“2” in line 80 resets the line spacing to 6 lines per inch. This is a

shortcut that is the same as (ESC) “A” CHR$(lB).

When you run this program with the DIP switch l-6 off (IBM

mode), you cannot get the printout as shown above.

The (ES0 “A” CHR$(n) command in IBM mode only defines

the line spacing as n/72 of an inch; the (ES0 “2” command
changes the line spacing to the amount defined by the previous

(ES0 “A”.

So, you need to change the following lines to the previous pro-

gram as shown below for the IBM mode:

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

80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"A";CHR$(12);CHR$(27);"2"

-

You may wonder why l/72 of an inch was chosen as the incre­ment for the line spacing command. There’s a good reason: the
dots that the printer makes are l/72 inch apart. So this means
that you can vary the line spacing in increments as fine as one
dot - unless you want finer spacing, in which case you may use
one third dot spacing.

The (ESC) “3” CHR$(n) command sets the line spacing in in-

crements of l/216 inch. Change line 40 in your program to this:

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

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

-

The program works just the same as before, but the line spac-

ings are just one-third what they were. This is because (ESC)

“3” CHR$(n) sets the line spacing to n/216 inch.

Table 4-2 shows all the line spacing commands, including

several “shortcut” commands for commonly used line spacings.

Table 4-2

Line spacing commands

Function

Control code

Set line spacing to l/8 inch <ESC)“O”
Set line snacing to 7172 inch <ESC)“l”
Set line spacing to l/6 inch or use (ESC),,2,,
<ESC)“A” definition
Set or define line spacing to n/72 inch <ESC)“A”CHR$(n)
Set line spacing to n/216 inch

<ESC)“3”CHR$(n)
One-time line feed of n/216 inch <ESC)“J”CHR$(n)
One-time reverse line feed of n/216 inch <ESC>“i”CHR$(n)

n Moving down the page without a carriage return

So far, all the commands that move the paper also move the
print head back to the left margin. 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/216 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 .I’

30 LPRINT "LINE NUMBER 2.";

' One-time line feed

40
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:

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

100/216 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 ex-

)
cept that the paper moves in the opposite direction. Try this sim­ple change to your program to see the difference.

' One-time reverse line feed

40
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"j";CHR$(lOO);

43

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.

H Form feed

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

(or (FF)) is CHR$(l%) 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

40

50 LPRINT CHR$( 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:

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 Reverse form feed

Just your printer perform a line feed, can do
reverse form This code the paper that the
head is at the of the page. This be
used, example, to text in multi-column magazine
mat; print first column, reverse form back to
top of page to the second The code reverse
form is easy remember: (ESC)

Table 4-3

Form feed commands

-

Function

Control code

Advance paper to top of next page CHR$(12)

q,

n Changing the page length

You may have some computer forms 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.

Table 4-4

Form length control

Function

Set the page length to n lines
Set the page length to n inches

Control code

(ESC) “C” CHR$(n)
(ESC) “c” CHR$(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.

’ Demo of variable form lengths

10

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:"

45

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
adjust the top of form position. When you turn the printer back
on the page length will reset to its normal setting (usually 11
inches).

TOP AND BOTTOM MARGINS

Some programs don’t keep track of where they are printing on
the page. This causes problems 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.

The 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 are
two commands to do this. One controls the space at the top of
the page (top margin) and the other controls the space at the bot­tom of the page (bottom margin). The control codes are given in
the following table:

Table 4-5

Top and bottom margin commands

Function

Set top margin to n lines

Set bottom margin to n lines

Control code

(ESC > “r” CHR$(n)
(ESC) “N” CHR$(n)

Cancel top and bottom margins (ESC) “0”

In both cases the value of n tells your printer how many lines

to skip, although there is a slight difference in the usage. When
you set the top margin with (ESC) “r” CHR$(n), the value of n
tells the printer what line to start printing on. When you set the
bottom margin with (ESC) “N” CHR$(n), the value of n tells

46

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 top and

bottom margins.

10 ' Demo of top and bottom margins
60 LPRINT CHR$(12);
70 FOR I=1 TO 150

80 LPRINT "THIS IS LINE";1
90 NEXT I

110 LPRINT CHR$(12)

120 END

:' Form feed

:

' Form feed

When you run this program it will print 150 lines right down
the page and across the perforations. When it’s done line 110
sends a form feed to advance to the top of the next page.

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);
40 ' Start top of page at line 6
50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"r";CHR$(6);

100 LPRINT CHRS(27);"O"; : ' Clear top and

bottom margins

Now when you run the program, your printer skip the first six
lines and the last six lines on each page. Always send a form
feed after setting the top margin, or it will not work on the first
page printed. That’s because the top margin only takes effect
after a form feed.

Line 50 sets the top margin, line 30 sets the bottom margin,

and line 100 clears both margins when we are done.

-^

”

___---- ----------

_-.

:.

I

0
0
0
0
0

-

47

T7

0
0
0

0

--­0

0
0
0
0

4

4

48

SETTING LEFT AND RIGHT MARGINS

The left and right margins of this printer work just like a
typewriter - once they are set all printing is done between
them. You can set margins by escape commands. The com­mands to set the margins are given in the following table:

Table 4-6

Left and right margin commands

Try setting the margins with this program:

10 ' Demo of margins
20 GOSUB 70
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"1";CHR$(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:

XXXXXXXXXxkXXXXxXXxXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxkkkk~xkxxxxxxxxxxkxxxxx

XkXXXXXxXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxkxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

49

When you want to reset the margins to the default values, you
have two choices. You can either turn the printer off and back
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 80 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, and 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. 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.

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 "ONEt';CHR$(9);"TWO";CHR$(9);"THREE";

CJIR$(9);"FOUR"

Here’s what you should get-

50

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:

15 LPRINT CHR$(27>;"D";CHR$(7);CHRS(14);CHRS(21);

(0)

(ESC) is the to begin horizontal tabs.

must be by characters the positions

you want tabs set. our program are setting
in columns 14, and The final ends the of
tabs. fact, any that is greater than provious
one stop setting This means you must all your

values in from least greatest, or won’t all

set.

When run the now it this:

The are now together, but evenly spaced.

reset the tabs, use following program:

CHR$(27) ;“eO”;CHR$(8)

This sets the tabs to eight col-

Table 4-7

Horizontal tab commands

51

W 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 is an easier way.

The solution is called a one-time tab. Table 4-8 shows the
three commands.

Table 4-8

One-time horzontal tabs

Function

One-time horizontal tab of n
spaces
Absolute horizontal tab
Relative horizontal tab (ESC) ‘I\” CHR$(nl) CHR$(n2)

Control code

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

The first command in Table 4-8 moves the print head n col-

umns 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 n2 using the formula nl + n2

x 256.

Try this program to see how this works.

’ Demo of absolute horizontal tabs

10
20 FOR I=60
30 LPRINT I ;“i-H+” ;
40 LPRINT CHR$(~~) ;“$“;CHR$(I) ;CHR$(O) ;

50 LPRINT “Horizontal tab. ”
60 NEXT I

70 END

TO 70 STEP

2

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

“Horizontal” is printed.

The relative horizontal tab command can move the print head

right from the current position with NLQ characters. The for­mula for calculating how much the print head moves is the same
as in the absolute horizontal tab command.

Try this program to see how this works.

' Demo of relative horizontal tabs

10
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xl";
30 FOR I=1 TO 3
40 LPRINT

"Relative";

50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"\";CHR$(I*20);CHR$(O);
60 LPRINT "Horizontal";

70 LPRINT CHR$(27);"\";CHR$(I*lO);CHR$(O);
80 LPRINT

"Tab."

90 NEXT I

100 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO"

110 END

Relative Horizontal Tab.

Relative Horizontal Tab.
Relative Horizontal

Tab.

W Vertical tabs

Vertical tabs have the same kinds of uses that horizontal tabs

do - they just work in the other direction. Horizontal tabs 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

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

Vertical tabs are not set at the power-on default. If you send a

CHR$( 11) which is the ASCII code for (VT) before we have set

I
L

53

.._

up tabs, the command advances the paper only one line. Enter
this program to see how this works.

' Demo of vertical tabs

10

40 LPRINT CHR$(ll);"FIRST TAB."

50 LPRINT CHR$(ll);"SECOND TAB."
60 LPRINT CHR$(ll);"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$(l5);
30 LPRINT CHR$(25);CHR$(30);CHR$(o);

(ES0 “B” is the command to set vertical tabs. Like the

horizontal tab setting command, tab positions must be defined

54

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.

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 the printer - it advances the paper to the

next tab position, which happens to be the first tab position on

the next page.

There’s a one-time vertical tab command that works just like
the one-time horizontal tab command. Try this program to see
how these commands work.

10 ' Demo of print positions

20 LPRINT I'* 1st Line, 1st Column."
30 LPRINT

CHR$(27);"fl";CHP,$(3);
40 LPRINT 'I* 5th Line, 1st Column."
50 LPRINT

CHR$(27);"fO";CHR$(7);
60 LPRINT rl* 6th Line, 7th Column."
70 LPRINT
80 LPRINT
90 LPRINT "*

CHR$(27);"fl";CHR$(2);

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

9th 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.

Table 4-9

Vertical tab commands

55

Function

Control code

Advance paper to next tab position CHR$(ll)

(ESC) “B” CHR$(nl) CHR@zZ) . . . . .

Set vertical tabs at nl, n2, etc.
Set vertical tabs every n lines

One-time vertical tab

CHR$,O1
(ESC) “e” 1 CHR$(n)

(ESC) “f” 1 CHR$(n)

n Vertical tab channels

Vertical tab channels are especially hefpful in two situations.
The first occurs when you are writing a program to accompany
a preprinted form that can accommodate verious types of

responses. The second occurs when you create a multipage
form or report with different vertical tabs on each page.

Table 4-10

Vertical tab channel commands

Function

Control code

Set vertical tabs at n.2, n.2, etc. as (ESC) “b” CHR$(nO) CHR$(nl)

channel nO

Select vertical channel nO

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

(ESC) “/” 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.

10 ’ Demo of vertical tab channels

56

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"b";CHR$(l);CHR$(lO);CHR$(20);

ems (0) ;

30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"b";CHR$(2);CHR$(15);CHR$(25);

CHR$ (0) ;

40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"b";CHR$(3);CHR$(17);CHR$(28);

CHR$ (0) ;

' Use vertical tab channels

50
60 FOR I=1 TO 3

70 LPRINT "TOP OF FORM"

80 LPRINT CHRS(27) ;"/";CHR$(I);

90 LPRINT CHR$(ll);

100 LPRINT "1ST TAB OF CHANNEL";I
110 LPRINT CHR$(ll);
120 LPRINT "2ND TAB OF CHANNEL";1
130 LPRINT CHR$(12);
140 NEXT I

150 LPRINT CHR$(27);"@"
160 END

When you run this program the printout should look like this.

iST TAB OF CHANNEL 1

ZND TAB OF CHANNEL 1

LST TAB OF CHANNEL 2

iST TAB OF CHANNEL 9

ZND TAB OF C!-lANNEL 2

ZND T&B OF CHANNEL 3

57

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) “/” CHR$(nU) in
line 80.

CENTERING AND ALIGNING TEXT

Text can be arranged in any of three formats: left aligned or
left-justified (normal printing with “ragged” right margin),
centered between the margins, or right aligned (right-justified).
These are selected by the following commands:

Table 4-11

Alignment commands

Function

Left-justified printing
Centered printing
Right-justified printing

Control code

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

Try this program to see how easy it is.

Demo of aligning and centering

10 ’

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"1";CHR$(20);
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"Q";CHR$(60);
40 LPRINT CHR$(~~);"~";CHR$(O);
50 LPRINT "THIS LINE IS LEFT-ALIGNED."
60 LPRINT CHR$(27);"a";CHR$(l);
70 LPRINT "THIS LINE IS CENTERED."
80 LPRINT CHR$(27);"a";CHR$(2);
90 LPRINT "THIS LINE IS RIGHT-ALIGNED."

100 LPRINT CHRS(27);V"
110 END

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

MEMO

CHAPTER 5

SPECIAL FEATURES OF

THE PRINTER

Subjects covered in Chapter 5 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 Macro instruction
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 looked at so far, but they add a lot of useful
features to your printer.

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 were

equipped with a bell that could be heard for blocks. This bell
was used to signal the operator that something needed atten­tion. The code that the computer sent to the teletype machine to
ring the bell was, reasonably enough, called a bell code. 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.

60

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 the operator to change the paper or to make other ad-

justments 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 on
again, or to send the specific codes that reset the particular
features. There is an easier way. The control code (ESC) “(3”
will reset all of the printer’s features to the power on condition
(as determined by the DIP switches), with two exceptions. The
exceptions are that (ESC) “@” will not erase any characters
that you have stored in the printer’s RAM memory (Chapter 6
tells you how to create your own characters), and it won’t erase
a macro if you have one stored in the printer’s RAM (this
chapter will tell you how to create a macro).

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

-

-

n Taking the printer off line

You know how to put your printer,off line with the On Line
key on the control panel. The printer has another off line state
that can be controlled from the computer. When you turn the
printer off line from the computer, the printer will ignore
anything that you send it, except for the code to go on line
again. CHR$(lS) is the code to turn the printer off line;
CHR$(17) turns the printer back 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 run-

-

-

_

-

61

ning 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 looked at are in the following table.

Table 5-l

Some miscellaneous commands

Function

Sound bell

Master rest

Off line

On line
Paper-out detector off
Paper-out detector OI

n l ESC 1 “9”

I Control I code
ICHWU)

IlESCl “62”

,\---, -

ICHR$(lS)

ICHRZii 71

----..+,\-. ,

(ESC) “8”

Move print head back one space 6HR$(8)
Delete last character sent
Cancel text in print buffer
Print “slash zero”
Print “normal zero”

iat&nrint nn

Immed

au,.., y”“L “II

Immediate-print off

CHR$( 127)
CHR$(24)
(ESC) “-” 1
(ESC) “h” 0
(ESC) “i” 1

/~ESC\ “i” n

, \---, - -

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

n Backspace, delete, and cancel text

Backspace (CHR$@)) “backs up” the print head so that you
can print two characters right on top of each other. Each time
your printer receives a backspace it moves the print head one
character to the left, instead of to the right. You can strike 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.

I

10 LPRINT "BACKSPACE DOES NOT";
20 LPRINT CHR$(8);CHR$(8);CHR$@);
30 LPRINT 'I=== WORK."
40 LPRINT "DELETE DOES NOT";
50 LPRINT
60 LPRINT

CHR$(127>;CHR$(127);CHR$(l27);
"WORK."

70 LPRINT "CANCEL LINE";

80 LPRINT CHR$(24);

90 LPRINT "DOES NOT WORK."

Here is what this program will print:

The backspace codes in line 20 move the print head a total of
three spaces to the left so that the first part of line 30 will over­print the word “NOT”. The delete codes in line 50 “erase” the
three letters in the word “NOT” so that it doesn’t even print.

In line 80, CHR$(24) deletes the words in line 70. The
semicolon at the end of line 70 prevents a line feed from causing
that line to print before the printer receives the CHR$(24) code.
The text in line 90 prints as it normally would because it is after
CHR$(24).

n Printing zeroes

There are two types of zeroes. There is the one we use every
day - 0 - and this is what your printer will print as its default.

The other type is used almost exclusively in computers and
engineering. It is called the “slash zero” and is written like this

- 0. The line through the number prevents you from
misreading it as the letter “0”. Before high-quality printers
were available, this was a good idea but there is no special need
for it today (although you may want to use the slash zero for a
special effect).

n Immediate-print

This printer can print at the rate of 100 characters per second.

63

But it will also print more slowly at the speed of your typing. In
the immediate-print mode, the print head prints one character at
a time, as you send it. The printer also moves the paper up so
that you can see the current line and then down to continue print­ing.

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

20 A$="" : INPUT

" 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. The printer simply puts the characters into its
buffer while it waits for a carriage return code. (In this program
the RETURN key doesn’t send a carriage return code.) To end

this program and print the contents of the buffer, press

RETURN alone.

Now add this line:

10 LPRINT CHRS(27) ;“il”;

And RUN the program. Your printer will now respond 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 NLQ character
mode is on while the DIP switch l-6 is set on. The (ESC)
CHR$(32) CHR$(

n command adds blank space between the

)
characters. The units of space that are added vary in l/240-inch
units.

Try this program to see how this works.

Demo of adjusting spaces

10 ’

20 LPRINT CJB$(27);"xl";

64

30 FOR I=10 TO 1

STEP -2
40 LPRINT CHRS(27);" ";CHR$(I);
50 LPRINT "This line is added";I;"spaces."

60 NEXT I

70 LPRINT CHRS(27);" ";CHR$(O);
80 LPRINT "This line is Normal space."
90 END

This line is

This line is

added 10 spaces.

added 8 spaces.

This line is added 6 spaces.

This line is added !t spaces.

This line is added 2 spaces.

This line is Normal space.

This command can be used to produce micro-justification,
which is a method of justifying lines by increasing the space be­tween each character.

n Uni-directional printing

Uni-directional printing means printing in one direction only.

Your printer normally prints when the print head is moving in

both directions. But once in a while you may have an application

such as making table where you are more concerned with how
the vertical lines align than with how fast it prints. The printer
lets you make this choice. The table below shows the commands
for controlling how the printer prints.

Table 5-2

Printing direction commands

Try this program to see the difference that printing in one

direction makes.

' Demo of uni-directional printing

10

20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"1";

-

65

30 FOR I=1 TO 10
40 LPRINT "I"
50 NEXT I
60 LPRINT : LPRINT

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

100 NEXT I

110 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, but the bottom
vertical lines are perfectly aligned.

Let’s analyze the program. Line 20 defines the line spacing to
7/72 of an inch so that the characters that we print will touch top
to bottom. Lines 30 - 50 print 10 vertical line characters. Then
line 70 sets uni-directional printing and the vertical lines are
printed again. Finally line 110 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 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 print head to the left margin and then
prints the remainder of the line from left to right.

I

66

H The seven bit dilemma

Some computers (not the IBM-PC fortunately!) don’t have the
capability to send eight bits on their parallel interface, but 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 5-3

Eighth bit controls

~1

Accept the eighth bit “as is” from cESCj ,,#,,

n 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 with IBM mode 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 #l except for the addition of ASCII codes
3--6,20,21,26, and 128-159. Character set #2 is selected with
(ESC)“G”; to go back to character set #l, use (ESC“7”.

You can also specify the power-on default character set by set­ting DIP switch l-4 on for character set #l and off for character
set #2. The following program will print out all of the graphics

characters available:

67

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"0";
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"6";

30 FOR J=3 TO 6

40 LPRINT w

";J;CHR$(J);CHR$(g);

50 NEXT J

60 LPRINT ' 20 ";CHR$(20)
70 LPRINT
80 LPRINT ' 21

";CHR$(21);CHR$(9);

90 LPRINT ' 26 ";

100 LPRINT CHR$(26)

120 LPRINT

130 FOR J=128 TO 254 STEP 5

140 FOR I=J TO J+4

150 IF I>254 THEN 170

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

L

170 NEXT I

180 LPRINT :LPRINT
190 NEXT J

Figure 5-1 shows what this program will print. If your chart

L

doesn’t 1001 like this because it has regular letters and numbers
instead of the special symbols, then your computer is only using

L.

seven bits. You can get the correct printout by changing line

160 to this:

L

160 LPRINT I;CHR$(27);">";CBR$(I);CHR$(27);"=";

L

aw(9);

A note for the IBM-PC users:

When you run this program, you cannot get the right-pointed
arrow (CHR$(26)) with the IBM-PC computers. This is because
the IBM-PC does not send this code to the printer.

There is a solution to avoid this problem. Change lines 100
and 120 to the either set of the following lists.

100 O=INP(&H379)

: IF 0<128 THEN 100
110 OUT &H378,26 : OUT &H37A,5 : OUT &H37A,4
120 LPRINT : LPRINT

100 O=INP(&H3BD)

: IF 0<128 THEN 100
110 OUT &H3BC,26 : OUT &H3BE,5 : OUT &H3BE,4
120 LPRINT : LPRINT

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.

69

10

LPRINT

20

LPRINT

CHR$(196>;CHR$(196);CHRs(196);CHR$(191)

30

LPRINT

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

40

LPRINT

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

50

LPRINT

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

60

LPRINT

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

70

LPRINT

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

80

LPRINT

CHR$(196>;CHR$(196);CHR$(l96);CHR$(217)

90

LPRINT

If you have a 7-bit interface, add the following lines to the pro­gram given above:

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

CHR$(27);"6";
CHR$(218);CHR$(196);CHR$(l96);

CHR$(l79);CHR$(53);CH.R$(32);CHR$(32);

CHR$(l79);CJJR$(32);CHR$(5);CHR$(32);

CHR$(l?S);CHR$(32);CHR$(32);CHR$(5);

CHR$(l79);CHR$(32);CHR$(5);CHR$(32);

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

CH.R$(192);CHR$(l96);CHRs(196);

CHR$(27);"7"

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

#I).

Here is what this program prints:

70

W International character sets

Your printer changes languages by changing 12 characters

that are different in the different languages. These sets of
characters are called international character sets - and there are

11 sets in all. The control codes to select the international

character sets are given in Table 5-4.

Table 5-4

International character set commands

-

The characters that change are shown beneath their ASCII

code in Table 5-5.

Table 5-5

International character sets

I Countrv I:

1 U.S.A. \ 1 * 1

France

:35136164/91 I#lSl@]C

0 c g - c

93 94 96

92

123124125126

c t 1 ­6 fi 8 a.’

Germanv

91 @ c \ 1 _ ‘ICIIIJI” England

E

Denmarktype # $I@lffl0l~l^ 1’ lieltil~l”

Sweden

Italy

# #I~l#I~IAI~I~I~IdI~I~
#

Spain

_ Japan

Norway # x E

L

i.

L

L

n Printing characters in the control code area

When you refer the Appendix C, you’ll find many characters
are printed in the control code area. (Remember that the low­order control codes are the ASCII codes 0 through 31 plus 127,
and the high-order control codes are 128 through 159 plus 255.)

These codes don’t normally print characters on paper, rather
they cause the printer to change modes. To make them print as
normal characters requires an extra command. For example,

the command to “normalize” the high-order control codes is
(ESC) “6”. Try this program with the DIP switch 1-6 on.

10

' Demo of characters in high-order control

code area
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"6";
30 FOR I=128 TO 159

40 LPRINT CHR$(I);

50 NEXT I
60 LPRINT CJ.-lR$(27);"7"
70 END

71

i.

6..

c..

L.

That’s where the italic international characters have been

stored. So the (ESC) “6” command without the (ESC) “R”
gives you access to the international characters. The (ESC) “7”
turns these characters back into control codes.

The low-order control codes can also be defined, but not all of

them can be printed easily. The (ESC) “I” 1 command makes

them printable, and the (ESC) “I” 0 returns them to normal.

Just as the higher control codes hide the italic international

characters, the lower control codes hide the roman international
characters.

Let’s see how these commands work with the following pro-

gram:

10

' Demo of characters in control code area
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"11";
30 FOR I=0 TO 6

72

40 LPRINT CHR$(I);
50 NEXT I
60 LPRINT c~~$(16);CHR$(l7);

70 FOR I=21 TO 31
80 LPRINT CHR$(I);
90 NEXT I

100 LPRINT
110 FOR I=128 TO 134
120 LPRINT CHR$(I);
130 NEXT I
140 LPRINT CHR$(144);CHR$(l45);
150 FOR I=149 TO 159
160 LPRINT CHR$(I);

170 NEXT I
180 LPRINT CHRS(27);"IO"
190 END

When you run this program you should get like this:

Table 5-6

Control code area commands

Function

Printable code area expansion
Control code area expansion
Select undefined codes as
characters
Cancel undefined codes as
characters

n Printing BIG characters

Control code

(ESC) “6”
(ESC) “7”

(ESC) “I” 1

(ESC) “I” 0

You can even enlarge your character sets for attention-grab­bing headings or special effects. There are six commands you
can use. Everything following any of them will be enlarged as

shown below, until the cancel code is entered.

!

Table 5-7

Big character commands

73

Function

Double-high enlarged print

Control code

(ESC) “h” CHR$(l)
Quad-high enlarged print (ESC) “h” CHR$(2)
Double-high lower-half enlarged

nrint

r- ----

Double-high upper-half enlarged

( ESC > “h,, CHR$.31

( ESC > “h,, CHR$(4J
print
Quad-high lower-half enlarged
mint
Quad-high upper-half enlarged

mint

r- ----

Cancel enlarged print

(ESC > “h” CHR$(5)

(ESC) “h” CHR$(G)

I

I( ESC > “h” CHR$(O)

Try this program to see the big characters.

10 ’ Demo of BIG characters

20 FOR I=1 TO 6
30 LPRINT "THIS IS ";
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(I);
50 LPRINT "BIG";
60 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);

70 LPRINT " CHARACTER." : LPRINT
80 IF I=2 THEN LPRINT
90 NEXT I

100 END

74

As you can see, when the big character command is used, the

baseline for each character does not align. If you want to align
the baseline, try this program:

Demo of aligning BIG characters

10 ’

20 LPRINT "THIS IS rr;

30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"j";CHR$(21);

40 LPRINT CBR$(27);"h";CHR$(l);

50 LPRINT "DOUBLE";
60 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);
70 LPRINT CHR$(27);"J";CHR$(lB);

80 LPRINT

" SIZED PRINTING."

90 LPRINT :LPRINT :LPRINT

100 LPRINT "THIS IS 'I;
110 LPRINT
120 LPRINT
130 LPRINT

CHR$(27);"j";CHR$(63
CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(2)

>;

.
,

"QUAD";
140 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);
150 LPRINT CHR$(27);"J";CHR$(63);

160 LPRINT "

SIZED PRINTING." :LPRINT :LPRINT

170 END

When you run this program, you will get this:

n The macro control code

The last of our group of miscellaneous codes is definitely not

the least. It is a user-defined control code, called a macro control

code. The term macro is from the jargonese macro-instruction
which refers to an instruction that “calls,” or uses a group of nor­mal instructions. In computer programming macro-instructions
(which are similar to subroutines) save programmers a lot of
time and effort. Your printer’s macro can save you a lot of time

and effort also.

75

Here is how the printer’s macro works. You define a macro by

telling the printer what normal control codes are to be included
in the macro. Then you can use the macro any time that you
want and the printer will do all the things that you included in
the macro definition. You can include up to 16 codes in a single
macro. You can even use the macro to store a frequently used
word or phrase. There are two control codes for the macro: one
to define it, and one to use it. They are given in the Table 5-8.

Table 5-8

Macro instruction commands

Function

Define macro
Use macro

Control code

(ESC) “+”

. . . (codes you include) . . .
CHR$(SO)
(ESC) “+” CHR$(l)

To see how this works we can build a macro that will reset the
printing style to normal, no matter what style it may be to start
with. The following program will define a macro to do this.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"+";
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);:'Big character off
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"!";CHR$(O);:'Select normal pica
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"T";

off

50 LPRINT CHR$(27);"a";CHR$(O);:'Left-aligned

printing

60 LPRINT CHR$(30)

:'Start macro

:'Super & subscripts

: 'End macro

As the comments in the program shown, we started to define

the macro in line 10. Line 20 cancels big character printing.

Line 30 sets normal pica, and this command also cancels propor-

tional pitch, condensed print, expanded print, boldface, empha-

sized, italics, and underlining. Line 40 cancels superscripts and
subscripts, and line 50 sets left-justified printing. Then, line 60
ends the macro definition. This printer will remember this
macro until the power is turned off or until a new macro is de­fined. A macro can hold up to 16 bytes (characters) of informa­tion. The one that we defined contains eleven.

76

Now that you have defined a macro, let’s see how to use it.
This program will print one line using several printing features.
Then it “calls” the macro in line 60. When line 80 prints the
style is “plain vanilla” because the macro has reset it.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"Q";CHR$(40);

20 LPRINT

CHR$(27);"a";CHR$(2);
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"-1";
40 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(l);
50 LPRINT "TESTING ABCD"
60 LPRINT

CHR$(27);"+";CHR$(l);
70 LPRINT "TESTING ABCD"

80 END

n Reading a hex dump

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. Hold down both the NLQ key and
Paper Feed key and turn on the printer, then run the following
program.

10 FOR I=0 TO 255
20 LPRINT CHR$(I);
30 NEXT I
40 LPRINT

50 END

If your system passes the codes directly to the printer without

changing them, you will get a printout 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.)

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

. . ..“...........

’ “HOAX.“, (, Ii , . /

0 1 ,( :‘l!r/,/ll’r’: : I-’

~~III.I)I I I,I~I~II L 1-t40

t’I1IitiIII’JWX’~‘/l \ I

atll-dc?l ClhI I& I”,,,0
~Ir(I’St.LIVW::yI : I : ‘\I.

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

. . . . . ..“........

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

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

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

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

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

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

. .

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

For example, the IBM-PC prints the following:

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

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

’ “#l.::?<‘ , ! *+, -. ,

0 I &‘:r,:,c ,,o ‘3: : .- ,-’

1”1\1~1 :I!L:l /_,I I I J t L.l’IIJci
I’llfi!GliIVIJXYi.l \.I

‘nhc LIC,f Lttll II lmr,r,
~,r,rst.\,“w:iy:: : I : *.

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

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

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

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

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

77

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

Your printer prints 16 hex numbers per line, printing the
characters on the right hand 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 capabili-

ty. Appendix B will help you translate the hex codes to ASCII
equivalents.

78

MEMO

CHAPTER 6

DOWNLOAD

CHARACTERS

AND DOT GRAPHICS

L

L..

L-

L.

L

Subjects covered in Chapter 6 include-

. Designing and printing your own characters

l User-designed graphics

Using the procedures outlined so far, all of the printer’s
standard functions can be utilized. There are two additional
user-defined functions available: designing and printing your

own characters, and designing and printing your .own dot

graphics.

These two functions can be used to design and print any sym­bol, or any graphic shape. This allows you to make your own

special symbols, or print a company logo. Some understanding
of dot matrix technology will be useful.

DOT MATRIX PRINTING

Dot matrix printers are named because each character is form-

ed from a group of dots. The print head comprises nine wires or
pins stacked vertically. For any standard character, up to seven
of the pins are used at one time; for capital letters, the top seven
are used, for standard height lower-case characters, the center
five pins, and for “descending” characters (such as “p” or “g”),
the bottom seven pins are used. The print head moves across
the paper and at any instant prints a vertical series of dots; look­ing at Figure 6-1 will reveal that the letter “p” consists of five
vertical columns of dots.

Any pin is fired by only one number, and any group of pins is

80

fired by a different number. One byte of data (a decimal number
from 0 to 255) can thus represent a unique combination of dots.
For example, if the data representing “1” was sent to the print
head, only the bottom pin would fire; if “2” was sent, only the
second pin from the bottom would fire, and if “3” was sent, the
two bottom pins would fire, and so on. Columns of these dots
side by side make all the characters.

0.0.

: .

0.0.

:­:
0

0

: .

00 0

.a..

0

l m.0

.... :-

0

Figure 6- 1.

pins prints a row of dots.

DESIGNING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS

Standard characters are permanently stored in the printer’s

ROM (Read Only Memory), but characters you design are

downloaded and stored in RAM (Random Access Memory) for

use.

Designing and printing your own characters has two re­quirements: firstly, designing the shape of the character,
calculating the data necessary to make the shape, and sending
that data to the printer, and secondary, sending the command to
print the downloaded characters instead of the standard
characters. There are a number of design construints for
download draft quality characters:

As the print head moves across the page, each of the

l The matrix or grid on which you design the characters is

81

F

six boxes ,wide by nine boxes high.

l Horizontally, dots may be centered in a box, or may

straddle a line, making the actual character grid 11 dots
wide by 9 dots high. Vertically, dots can only be
centered in a box. See Figure 6-2.

l The minimum width of a character is five dots.
l Unlike standard characters that are restricted to a

height of seven dots, user-defined characters may use
eight dots vertically.

l Dots cannot overlap - that is, you may not have a dot

inside a box next to one that is on a line.

l You may define any position between ASCII 32 and 127.

c.

i

i
L
c
L
L
i
Ii..

LL

Figure 6-2.

of the grid.

Photocopy the grid in Figure 6-3 to help design your new
characters. We will use a tiny representation of a chemist’s flask
for our example. We decided that our flask will not be a
“descender” (printing below the baseline of standard

characters), so a figure “1” is written next to Descender on the
grid. If your character is a descender, write a “0” next to

Descender.

Next we calculate the vertical numerical values of the columns

of dots. and enter them underneath the grid. For example, look­ing at Figure 6-4, we see that in the left-most column there is
only one dot, and it is sitting in the “2” box. Thus its vertical

Dots can be inside boxes or straddle the vertical lines

82

value is 2. In the next column, there is a dot straddling the ver­tical line in the “1” box, and another in the “4” box; its value is
recorded as 5.

,

m. m, m, m. m, m, m, m. m, m. m.,

-

128

64

32

16

Total

Figure 6-3.

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

draft characters.

m, m, m, m. m, m. m. m. m, m,, m..

128

64

32

16

ASCII Code

Descender

Start column
End column

M, = Descender l 126 + (Slarl l 16) + End

ASCII Code

Descender

Start column
End column

M, = Descender l 128 + (Start l 16) + EnI

2

1

Total 2 8 0 z‘k/ 3 41

5 241 P r 2.

Figure 6-4. Add the values of the dots in each column and write

the sum of each column at the bottom.

83

You will see the letters ml, m2, m3 etc., are above your
values. When you define the character, you will substitute your
value for each of these letters.

Before you complete the definition, you will need to decide ex­actly where in the standard ASCII set you want to place your
characters. After downloading, you access your new character
by sending the code for the character you replaced. For exam­ple, we decided to assign our flask to the “(” character. You are
not restricted in your choice of ASCII codes, so little-used codes
may be replaced by your own more useful characters. The com­plete command syntax for a download character is:

(ESC) “8~” CHR$(O) nl n2 m0 ml m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 m9

ml0 ml1

Where (ESC) is the escape code (CHR$(27)), the “8~” is the

ampersand (CHR$(38)) followed by CHR$(O), and nl and n2

specify the ASCII codes you want the new characters to occupy.
nl specifies the beginning of the range of ASCII codes to be de-

fined, and n2 the end; if you only want to define one character,

nl and n2 will be the same.

m0 is called the attribute byte, and describes two attributes:

the top or high order bit describes whether the character is a

descender, and the last seven bits describe proportional widths.

Our character will occupy from column 1 to column 11, so the

proportional data is 11. See Figure 6-5. For further detail about

proportional width of characters, see the following section.

Figure 6-5. The attribute byte (Ml) for our flask character.

Even though there are no dots in the last column, we define to

column 11 to leave some space between the characters.

ml to ml 1 are the column data we defined along the bottom of

84

the grid; ml the left-most column value, m2 the next, and so on.
You must define eleven data, even if the last few data are 0. For
the flask, the complete command will be:

CHR$(27);CHR$(38);CHR$(O);CHR$(GO);CHR$(60);
CHR$(139);CHR$(2);CHR$(5);CHR$(8);CHR$(24l);CHR$(O);
CHR$(O);CHR$(241);CHR$(8);CHR$(5);CHR$(2);CHR$(O)

Put this command into the appropriate syntax for the
language you are using. Before you run the program and send
the data to the printer, remember to check that DIP switch l-l
is set to off.

The last requirement is the command to make the printer use
the downloaded characters stored in RAM instead of the stand­ard character set stored in ROM. The command is:

(ESC) “%” n

Where n is either “1” (CHR$(49), to select), or “0” (CHR$(48),
to cancel). If you want your new characters to be included in a
standard character set, you may copy the standard set stored in
ROM into the download RAM, which will save you switching
back and forth between the download area and the standard
ROM. If you wish to use this option, make sure that you copy
the standard characters into RAM before you download your
own, because the last-copied characters replace previously
copied ones. The command to copy the standard characters into
the download RAM area is:

(ESC)

“:” CHR$(O) CHR$(O) CHR$(O)

To recap, the order of commands if you wish to use various
user-defined characters with the standard set is:

l Select the draft characters : (ESC) “x” 0
l Copy standard character set to RAM : (ESC) “:”

CHR$(O) CHR$(O) CHR$(O)

l Define characters, and send data to printer : (ESC) “8~”

CHR$(O) . . . . .

85

l Tell printer to use download character set : (ESC > “%”

1

To demonstrate how to use the download characters, let’s use
the “flask” character and some other user-defined characters to
print a small graph. This program will do just that:

L.

L

L

L

i

i

‘.

i

c.
c

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);":"

;CHR$(O>;CHR$(O);CHR$(O);
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);"&";CHR$(O);CHR$(60);CHR$(62);
30 FOR N=60 TO 62

40 FOR M=O TO 11

50 READ MM
60 LPRINT CHR$(MM);
70 NEXT M

80 NEXT N
90 LPRINT

100 DATA 139, 2, 5, 8,241, 0, 0,241, 8, 5,

2, 0

110 DATA 139,124, 0, 66, 4, 64, 36, 16,

2, 16,

12, 0

120 DATA 139, 46, 16, 2, 60, 0, 45, 0, 48, 0,

48, 0
130 LPRINT CHR$(27);"D";CHR$(ll);CHR$(O)
140 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(l);
150 LPRINT "

U.S. EXPORTS"
160 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);
170 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%1";
180 LPRINT "AUTOS";CHR$(9);
190 FOR I=.4 TO 9.3 STEP .4

200 LPRINT CHR$(61);

210 NEXT I
220 LPRINT
230 LPRINT "CHEMICALS";CHR$(9);
240 FOR I=.4 TO 8.7 STEP .4
250 LPRINT CHR$(60);
260 NEXT I
270 LPRINT
280 LPRINT "GUNS";CHR$(9);
290 FOR I=.4 TO 1.4 STEP .4
300 LPRINT CHR$(62);
310 NEXT I

1

86

320 LPRINT

330

LPRINT CHR$(9);+-";
340 SCALE$="--+--'I
350 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
360 LPRINT SCALES;

370 NEXT I

380 LPRINT I'--+"

390 LPRINT CHR$(9);" 'I;
400 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
410 LPRINT " ";I;
420 NEXT I
430 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%0".
440 LPRINT CHRS(27);"SO";
450 LPRINT CHR$(9);"MILLIONS OF DOLLARS"
460 LPRINT CH.R$(27);"T"
470 END

DEFINING PROPORTIONAL CHARACTERS

Defining proportional characters uses the same process as
above, except that we add additional information. Being able to
specify the width of the character allows you to specify the
precise area inside the grid that the character will occupy, so
that narrow characters will look attractive next to wide ones.

The additional information is carried in the attribute byte, m0.
The first bit carries the descender data, the next three bits
specify the starting column (acceptable values are 0 to 7), and
the last four bits specify the last print column, including space

when desired. Acceptable values are from 4 and 11. The

minimum character width is five dots, anywhere within the
range.

DESIGNING YOUR OWN NLQ CHARACTERS

As you have probably noticed, NLQ characters are printed by
two passes of the print head. Half of the character is printed on
the first pass, and the remainder on the second pass. The paper
is rolled up half a dot height in between passes to let the print
head print dots on the second pass that overlap the previous
dots, in order to fill in the spaces and produce denser characters.

Fundamentally, the process to define and print downloaded
NLQ characters is the same as for draft characters, except that
you must design the character with the two passes of the print
head in mind.

Use the grid in Figure 6-6 to help plot the data. Due to the
two-pass process, NLQ characters can contain up to 16 dots ver-

tically. ml to ml1 are the data for the first pass, and ml2 to
m22 are the data for the second pass.

128

128

84

64

32
32

18

1s

s

8

4

4

2

2
1

1

TOlJ

1st

2nd

I

Figure 6-6. Use this grid (or one similar to it) to define your own

NLQ characters.

ASCII Code:

Descender:

Start column:

End column:

MO = Descender * 128 + (Start * 16) + End

1

To make the character data easier to calculate, put the first

pass dots inside the boxes on the grid when you are designing

88

your characters, and the second pass dots on the lines. Remeber
that adjacent dots may not overlap on the same pass; in other
words, if one dot is in a box, its adjacent dot on the same pass
may not be on a line. Therefore, to make smooth characters, put
the dots needed to overlap any spaces in a character in the ap­propriate places in the second pass grid.

If we replot our flask for NLQ, the grid data will look like

Figure 6-7.

ASCII Code: 60

Descender:

Start column:

End column:

MO = Descender* 1128 + (Start * 16 1 + Enc

rota1 2 8 6. 24/ 5. $5

1st 9. 244 f3 8 2.

2nd 6. 16 # 216 9. 4

8. 274. d 16 4.

Ggure 6-7. Add the values of the dots in the boxes first, and then

1

add the values on the lines.

The defining process is the same as for draft characters, ex­cept that you must select NLQ characters by using (ESC) “x” 1
first to select the NLQ mode, and you must define 22 data (ml
to m22). If you wish to print your NLQ characters with the stand­ard character set, the remarks regarding the simultaneous use
of standard and download characters in the draft character sec­tion apply equally to NLQ characters.

To demonstrate how to use the NLQ download characters, try
this program.

89

10 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xl";
20 LPRINT CHR$(27);":"

;CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(O);
30 LPRINT CHR$(27);"&";CHR$(O);CHR$(60);CHR$(62);
40 FOR N=60 TO 62
50 FOR M=O TO 22
60 READ MM

70 LPRINT CHR$(MM);
80 NEXT M
90 NEXT N

100 LPRINT

110 DATA 139, 2, 5, 8,241, 0, 0,241, 8, 5,

120 DATA 6, 8, 16,224, 0, 0,224, 16, 8, 6,

0

130 DATA 139,124, 0, 66, 4, 64, 36, 16,

2, 16,

12, 0

140 DATA 120, 4, 0, 4, 0, 96, 4, 0, 4, 8,

0

150 DATA 139, 46, 16, 2, 60, 0, 48, 0, 48, 0,

48, 0

160 DATA 92, 32, 4, 60, 0, 48, 0, 48, 0, 48,

0
170 LPRINT CHR$(27);"D";CHR$(1l);CHR$(O)
180 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(l);
190 LPRINT "

U.S. EXPORTS"
200 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);
210 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%1";
220 LPRINT "AUTOS";CHR$(9);
230 FOR I=.4 TO 9.3 STEP .4
240 LPRINT CHR$(61);
250 NEXT I
260 LPRINT
270 LPRINT "CHEMICALS";CHR$(9);
280 FOR I=.4 TO 8.7 STEP .4
290 LPRINT CHRS(60);
300 NEXT I
310 LPRINT
320 LPRINT "GUNS";CHR$(9);
330 FOR I=.4 TO 1.4 STEP .4
340 LPRINT CHRS(62);
350 NEXT I

360 LPRINT

90

370 LPRINT CHR$(9);"i--'I;
380 SCALE$="--+-'I
390 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2

400 LPRINT SCALES;
410 NEXT I
420 LPRINT "--+"
430 LPRINT CHRS(9);" ";
440 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
450 LPRINT " ";I;
460 NEXT I
470 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%0"
480 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO";
490 LPRINT CHR$(27);"SO";

500 LPRINT CHR$(9);"MILLIONS OF DOLLARS"
510 LPRINT CHR$(27);"T"
520 END

USER-DESIGNED DOT GRAPHICS

Designing and printing graphics is similar to the procedures
for characters, except that the printed width can range from one
to 1920 dots. Selection of the appropriate line spacing will allow
rows of dots to link seamlessly, and in this way you may design

and print a whole page of data. In the dot graphics mode, you
directly address all dot positions on the page if desired. The
graphics mode can print as many as 240 dots per inch compared
with the standard resolution of 60 dots per inch (dpi).

The command to print normal density (60 dpi horizontally, 72

dpi vertically) uses this format:

(ESC) “*” CHR$(O) nl n2 ml m2 . . . . .

(ESC) “*” specifies the graphics mode, the CHR$(O) specifies
normal density. Other densities are described later. Any
number of graphics data may follow; the nl and n2 specify the
number of bytes.

To figure the value of nl and n2, you need to work out how
wide your image will be. Because you are limited to the largest
number that can be sent in one byte (255), the formula to work
out nl and n2 is:

if the number of columns is X,
then nl =X MOD 256, and nZ=INT(X/256)

Table 6-l may make the calculation easier.

Table 6-1

Calculating nl and n2.

umber of col- 1 Then nl is:

L

512 to 767
768 to 1023

t

1536 to 1791 X-
1792 to 1920

X-

x-768

and n2 is:

I

I

ml, m2 and so on are specified as before, that is, any desired
combination of pins will be fired by just one number. Because
the top eight pins are used in the dot graphics mode, numbers
between 0 and 255 (in other words, one byte) will fire a unique
combination of pins to produce any pattern of dots. Thus ml,

mZ and so on are the data bytes of the command.

To plot large graphics, use graph paper and draw a line every

eight rows. Draw your graphics shape, and then calculate the
values of each vertical column of eight dots; each value becomes
one data byte. When drawing large shapes, the data byte
CHR$(255) (all pins firing, or a solid block of dots) is common.

A line spacing of 8172 inch (using the (ESC) “A” CHR$(n),

where n =8), will ensure that successive rows of dots will join
perfectly.

HIGHER RESOLUTION GRAPHICS

There are seven graphics modes you can use; they are sum-

marized in Table 6-2.

Table 6-2

Function

Normal density (60 dots/inch)

Double densitv (120 dots/inch)
Double der----,
Quadruple dens.-, ,­Semi-double density

Plotter graphics (72 dots/i----~,
CRT graphics (90 dots/inch)

You will notice that the higher the density of the graphic
mode, the more points you will need to plot. Higher density
modes also take longer to print. The double density double
speed mode ignores every second column of dots to give you a
quick printout for debugging purposes; you can then change to
true double density graphics for the final printout.

If your software cannot access the (ESC) “*” command, there
are individual letter escape commands for four of the modes.
See Table 6-3.

ifv (240 dots/inch) (ESC)“z”CHR$(3) :l n2 ml m2

~~1

(8u aot

Alternative graphics commands

Control code

(ESC)“*“CHR$(O) nl n2 ml m2 . . .
(ESC)“*“CHR$(l) nl vL?ml m2 . . .

11 m2 . . .

I<ESCj”*“CHR$iGj nl n2ml m2 . ..I

Table 6-3

MORE GRAPHICS PROGRAMMING TIPS

At the end of this chapter, we’ll discuss two modes that the
printer offers to help you solve potential graphics problems. A
redefining code allows you to change the density for graphics
programs that use one of the four alternate codes. The g-pin
graphics mode allows you to use all nine pins on each line and
thus speed up screen dumps.

Table 6-4

More graphics commands

Function

Redefine the graphics mode
g-pin graphics

Control code

(ESC)“?” 120 nl

(ESC)“ - ” n0 nl n2 ml m2 . . . . .

q Redefining alternate graphics codes

Your printer provides a command to redefine one of the alter­nate graphics modes - K, L, Y, or 2 - so that it represents any
other of the seven graphics modes. The command is (ESC) “?”
n0 nl, where n0 is one of the four letters, “K”, “L”, “Y”, or “Z”,
and nl is one of the numbers used with the (ESC) “*” com­mand, 0 to 6. There are several instances in which you may use
this sequence.

The first occurs if you have written a program to be printed in
one graphics mode and now want to print it in another. If you
have used concatenation to store your graphics command in one
short character string, that will not be difficult. You can simply
change the mode number or alternate code in the definition of
the character string.

A second time you can make good use of the redefining code
occurs when you want to change a program in which you have
not concatenated the graphics codes. Using the (ESC) ‘?” se­quence allows you to change every instance of your graphics

command by entering only one line.

n g-pin graphics mode

In the early part of this chapter, we said that the bottom pin of
the print head is not normally used in the graphics modes.
That’s because most computers communicate with parallel-type

94

peripheral devices using eight data lines. When the peripheral is
a printer, each data line corresponds to one pin on the print
head. Thus each byte sent will fire up to eight pins.

But the printer has 9 pins available. So how do you fire the

ninth pin with only 8 data lines? In fact, do you really want to
bother with just one extra pin? Well, for such graphics-intensive
applications as screen dumps, printing 9 pins at a time can
speed up the process considerably. For this purpose, your
printer has a special g-pin graphics mode (it won’t, however,
work with 7-bit interface systems). In this mode the printer
takes 2 bytes to fire all 9 pins as shown in Figure 6-8.

128

0

64
32

:

16

First byte

8

:

4

0

2

0

1

J

128

E

Ij

Second byte
(Only the top

bit is used)

Figure 6-8.

graphics mode.

In addition, you can select the print density by the value of no.

When n0 is 0 the normal density is selcted, and when n0 is 1 the
double density is selected.

Since computers are faster than printers, there is no signifi-

cant time loss in printing a single line of graphics with 9 pins.

You get 9 dots per line in about the same time as you get 8 dots

in the other graphics modes.

The printer needs 2 bytes to fire all 9 pins in the g-pin