Star Micronics NX-1020 User Manual

NX-1020

RAINBOW

USERS MANUAL

NOT INTENDED FOR SALE

Federal Communications Commission

Radio Frequency Interference Statement

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant
to Part 15 of FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency
energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference
to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular
installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can
be determined by turning the equipment off and at, the user is encouraged to try to correct the
interference by one or more of the following measures:

l Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.

* Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
* Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is

connected.

l Consult the dealer or an experienced radioDV technician for help.

Unauthorized modifications of this product by the user will void his authority to operate the equipment
unless expressly approved by the party responsible for compliance.

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

The above statement applies only to printers marketed in the V.SA.

-

The Canadian Department of Communications

Radio Interference Regulations

This digitalapparatus does not exceed theClass B limits for radionoiseemissions from digitalapparatus

set out in the Radio Interference Regulations of the Canadian Department of Communications.

Statement of

Le ptisent appareil numkique n’hen pas de bruits radioklectriques dCpassant les limites applicables
aux appareils numCriques de la classe B prescrites dans le Reglement sur le brouillage radio&cnique
Cdict6 par le miniske des Communications du Canada.

The above statement applies only IO printers marketed in Canada.

Trademark Acknowledgements

NX-1020, NX-1000, LC-10, ND-lo/H: Star Micronics Co., Ltd.
IBM PC, PC-AT, PC-XT, Proprinter III, Proprinter II, PC-DOS: International Business Machines

Corp.
Microsoft BASIC, MS-DOS: Microsoft Corporation
FX-850, EX-800, LX-854 LX-810: Seiko Epson Corp.

NOTICE

l All rights reserved. Reproduction of any part of this manual in any form whatsoever without

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

press. However, should any errors LX detected, STAR would greatiy appreciate being informed

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

-

0 Copyright 1990 Star Micronics Co., Ltd.

HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL

This manual is organized into nine chapters. To learn how to make the best
use of your printer you are urged to read through chapters 1 through 3. The
remaining chapters may be treated as a reference guide for programming
operations, etc. It assumes a degree of knowledge of the operation of
computers (for instance, it assumes you know about hexadecimal numbers).
The chapters are as follows:

Chapter 1 - Setting up the printer
This chapter explains how to get the printer unpacked and set up. Read this

chapter before you do anything else.

Chapter 2 - Control panel operations

There are a number of controls on the front panel which perform various
functions related to paper handling, print modes and font selection.

After getting set up, read this chapter and try out the various procedures in
it to find out how the printer works.

Chapter 3 - Default settings
This chapter explains how to use the Electronic DIP Switch (EDS) mode to

make system settings on the printer.

Chapter 4 - Printer control commands

This chapter explains the different emulations provided by your printer, and
the software commands used to drive it. This section is of use if you are
writing or modifying programs to take advantage of the printer’s features.

Chapter 5 - Download characters
This chapter explains the procedures to create your own characters.

Chapter 6 - MS-DOS and your printer
Since the PC or PC-AT family of computers running under MS-DOS is

currently the most popular configuration of microcomputer, we have in­cluded a few hints and tips to help you use your printer with such systems.
Since virtually all PCs are sold with a Microsoft BASIC interpreter, we have
also included some hints, and a sample program in this language to

demonstrate the capabilities of the printer.

Chapter 7 - Troubleshooting and maintenance
This section gives a checklist of points to check if your printer is not working

in the expected way. It also includes details of some routine maintenance
operations you can carry out yourself. It is not, however, a complete service
manual. Call a qualified service engineer if you are unsure of your ability to
carry out any maintenance or servicing operations.

Chapter 8 - Specifications

This section gives the specifications of your printer.

Chapter 9 - Character sets
These charts show the different character sets available.

-

FEATURES OF THE PRINTER

This printer has a full complement of features, making it an excellent partner
for a personal computer. It supports the IBM/Epson printer commands and
character sets, enabling it to print just about anything your computer can
generate, both text and graphics. Some of its main features are the following:

l Extensive software support

Since it is compatible with the Epson and IBM printers, it works with any
software that supports those printers. That includes most word-processing
and graphics programs, spread-sheets, and integrated software packages.

l Easy operation

Clearly understandable indicator displays and beep tones provide immedi­ate feedback when you press the buttons on the control panel. The five
buttons can operate in combinations to perform a surprising variety of
functions, including micro-alignment.

l Easy care and maintenance

The ribbon cartridge can be replaced in seconds the print head in a few

minutes.

l Versatile paper handling

Single sheets, fanfold forms, and multi-part forms (up to quadruple-ply) are
all accepted, and you can use either push/pull tractor or friction feed. A
special feature enables you to keep fanfold forms parked in readiness while
printing on other paper.

l Large variety of fonts and sizes

The printerhas one draft font, one High-Speed Draft font and four NLQ fonts
(Courier, Sanserif, Orator and Script), italics for all styles, plus condensed
print, bold print, double-sized print, and quadruple-sized print.

/

Chapter 1 SETTING UP THE PRINTER

Chapter 2 CONTROL PANEL OPERATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Locating the Printer
Unpacking and Inspection

Checking the carton contents
Identifying printer parts

Setting Up

Mounting the platen knob
Install the ribbon cartridge and the roller unit
Connecting the printer to your computer

Loading Single Sheets

Automatic loading
Manual loading

Loading and Parking Fanfold Forms

Loading the paper from the rear of the printer
Loading the paper from the bottom of the printer
Paper parking

Paper unparking
Loading Multi-Part Forms
Adjusting the Printing Gap

Buttons and Indicators

ON LINE button

PAPER FEED button

SET/EJECT/PARK button
PITCH button
FONT button

Power-Up Functions

Short test mode
Long test mode

Print area test mode

Stay in panel pitch

Stay in panel font

Stay in panel pitch and font

Hexadecimal dump

Switch Combination Functions

Form feed
Top of form

1

1
2
2
3
4
4
4
8 _
9
9

11
12
12
15
16
17
18
19

21
21
22
22
23
23
24
25
25 ­26
27
27
27
27
28
30
30
30

Forward micro-feed
Reverse micro-feed
Changing the auto loading value
Clearing the buffer/All reset

Selecting the print color
Store macro definition

31
31
31
32

32
33

Chapter 3 DEFAULT SETTINGS

How to set the EDS mode

Functions of the EDS settings

Bidirectional test/Adjustment mode

Chapter 4 PRINTER CONTROL COMMANDS

Font Control Commands
Character Set Commands
Character Size and Pitch Commands
Vertical Position Commands
Horizontal Position Commands
Graphics Commands
Download Character Commands
Color Selection Commandes
Other Printer Control Commands

Chapter 5 DOWNLOAD CHARACTERS

Designing Your Own Draft Characters

Defining the attribute data
Assigning the character data
Sample program

Defining Your Own NLQ Characters

Assigning the character data with the Standard mode
Assigning the character data with the IBM mode

Chapter 6 MS-DOS AND YOUR PRINTER

Installing Application Software with Your Printer
Embedding Printer Commands
Programming the Printer with DOS Commands
Programming with BASIC

How the program works

35
35

36

40
41

42

47
50
55
62
67
70
74

76

81

81
82
83
84
86
86

90

95
95
96

98
101
104

Chapter 7 TROUBLESHOOTING AND MAINTENANCE

Troubleshooting

Power supply
Printing

Paper feeding
Maintenance
Replacing the Print Head

107
107
108
108
110
113
113

Chapter 8 SPECIFICATIONS
Chapter 9 CHARACTER SETS

Standard Character Set #l
Standard Character Set #2
International Character Sets
IBM Character Set #2

Code page #437 (U.S.A.)
Code page #850 (Multi-lingual)
Code page #860 (Portuguese)
Code page #861 (Icelandic)
Code page #863 (Canadian French)

Code page #865 (Nordic)
IBM Character Set #l
IBM Special Character Set

INDEX

COMMAND SUMMARY

115

119
120
122
123
124
124
126
127
128
129
130
131
132

133

136

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Chapter 1

SETTING UP THE PRINTER

Subjects covered in Chapter 1 include -

l Locating the printer
l Unpacking and inspection (part names)
l Setting up and connecting
l Loading single sheets
l Loading and parking fanfold forms
l Adjusting the printing gap

LOCATING THE PRINTER

Before you start unpacking and setting up your printer, make sure that you
have a suitable place on which to locate it. By “a suitable place”, we mean:

l A firm, level surface which is fairly vibration-free
l Away from excessive heat (such as direct sunlight, heaters, etc)
l Away from excessive humidity
l Away from excessive dust

Supply it with “clean” electricity. Do not connect it to the same circuit as

l

a large, noise-producing appliance such as a refrigerator.

l Make sure the line voltage is the voltage specified on the printer’s

identification plate.

l To disconnect the printer the plug has to be disconnected from the wall

socket, which has to be located close to the printer, and easy to access.

l Install the printer where there is sufficient room for the paper and any

paper being fed in or printed out.
If you are connecting your printer with a parallel cable, make sure that the

l

cable is within 2m (6ft) of the printer. An RS-232 connection using the
optional SPC-8K interface can be made over longer distances.

1

UNPACKING AND INSPECTION

Checking the carton contents

Now unpack the contents of the shipping carton, and check each item in the
box against Figure l- 1 to make sure that you have everything (there should
be six items).
If any of these items are missing, contact your supplier.

-

b.

The optional accessories which you may have ordered with your printer are:

l Monochrome ribbon cartridge (ZX9)
l Serial-Parallel converter (SPC-8K)
l Automatic sheet feeder (SF- IODN)
l Roll paper holder (RH-IOZ)

Identifying printer parts

Make an external inspection of the printer. Note the locations of the
following parts in Figure l-2.

FIgwe 7-Z. The printer’s external parts

Roller unit:
Release lever:

holds the paper against the platen.
releases the platen. This lever must be back for
single sheets, and forward for fanfold forms.

Top cover:
Rear cover:
Entry slot:
Control panel:
Power switch:
Interface connector: for connecting the computer to the printer.

protects the print head and other internal parts.
protects the tractor feed mechanism.
for inserting single sheets of paper.
controls various printer functions.
turns power on and off.

3

SETTING UP

Place the printer in the desired location, and remove all packing material
from inside the top cover. This packing material is intended to prevent
damage to the printer while in transit. You will want to keep all the packing
material, along with the printer carton, in case you have to move the printer
to a new location.

Mounting the platen knob

The platen knob is packed into a recess of the white foam packing material
which held your printer inside the carton. Be sure to remove the knob from
the packaging.

Mount the knob on the platen shaft, which is on the right-hand side of the
printer. Rotate the knob on the shaft before pushing the knob fully into
position.

-

Piaten

knob

Figure T-3. Mounting the platen knob

Install the ribbon cartridge and the roller unit

Remove the top cover by lifting up the front (using the two grips on either

side), and pulling the cover towards you (see Figure l-4). Now install the
ribbon. (If you want to print with black only, install the monochrome ribbon
cartridge, ZX9.)

4

F/gum T-4. Removing the top cover

1. Turn the tension knob counterclockwise on the ribbon cartridge to
tighten the ribbon if it is slack.

Guide the ribbon between the print head and the silver print head shield,

2.
making certain that the spindles on the cartridge holder fit into the
sockets on the cartridge itself.

int head shield

F/gum 1-5. Installing the ribbon cartridge

3. The ribbon should pass between the print head and the print head shield
(see Figure l-6).

rint head shield

Figum 7-6. Pass the ribbon between the print head and print head shield

4. After you have installed the ribbon cartridge, install the roller unit.

5. Open the rear cover using the two grips on either side.

6. Gripping the lock levers on both sides of the roller unit, fit the mounting

brackets onto the shaft inside of the printer mechanism. You will need
to tilt the roller unit slightly backward.

7. Secure the roller unit firmly by lowering into position, as shown in
Figure l-7.

8. Close the rear cover.

-

-

6

Figure T-7. Install the roller unit onto the printer

To replace the top cover, insert the tabs into the slots on the printer case.

Swing the front edge down to close the cover.

Leave the top cover closed during normal operation. The cover keeps out

dust and dirt and reduces the printer’s operating sounds. Open the cover only

to change the ribbon or make an adjustment.
NOTE : When you remove the color ribbon cartridge, press the ribbon

release catch toward you with your index finger. Once the ribbon is
free of the print head, the cartridge lifts out easily.

Connecting the printer to your computer

Connect the printer to your computer using a standard parallel interface
cable. On a PC or PC/AT-type computer, this means that you use the 25pin
D-type connector at the computer end, and the Amphenol-type 36-pin con-

nector at the printer end. The configuration of the printer’s connector is

given in Chapter 8 should you need a cable for connecting to another
computer.

If you need to connect to a serial port, use the optional Serial-Parallel con-

verter, SPC-8K.

\ -i

\

\Y

Connector

%

Inierface cable

Figurn 7-S. Connecting the interface cable

Plug the printer into a suitable outlet. However, DO NOT turn on the power
switch at the front of the printer yet.

NOTE: To disconnect the printer the plug has to be disconnected from the

wall socket, which has to be located close to the printer, and easy to

access.

8

LOADING SINGLE SHEETS

This section will take you through the procedures for loading single sheets
of paper.

If you are using the optional automatic sheet feeder (SF- lODN), refer to the
ASF instruction booklet.

Automatic loading

Single sheets can be loaded manually with the power off, or automatically
with the power on. We will start the easy way with automatic loading.

1. Place the paper guide in position by inserting the tabs, located on the
bottom of the assembly, into the slots on the rear cover of the printer.

Figure 1-9. Mounting the paper guide for single sheets

2. Adjust the paper guides to match the size of the paper you will be using.
Remember that printing will start some distance from the left-hand edge
of the carria.ge.

3. Turn on the power using the switch located at the front of the printer. The
printer will beep, indicating that there is no paper in position for printing.

The orange POWER indicator will also flash to confirm this.

9

4. Make sure that the release lever is back.
If fanfold paper is already mounted in the printer, press the (

SE~&~cT
button to park the paper in the off-line state, then move the release lever
backwards.

5. Place a single sheet between the guides, placing the side on which you
want to print towards the back of the printer. Gently push the paper down
in the guides until you feel it stop.

6. Now press the (

SETpE&C’

) button. The paper will be fed into the printer

and adjusted past the print head to a position ready for printing.

7. If you want to set the paper to a different position, set the printer off-line
by pressing the ( ON LINE

) button, then set the paper by using the

micro-feed function. (For details, refer to Chapter 2.)

lease

lever

1

-

-

I

Figure 1-10. Loading a single sheet

Manual loading

It is also possible to load paper manually while the printer’s power is off. The
procedure is:

Place the paper guide in position by inserting the tabs, located on the

1.
bottom of the assembly, into the slots on the rear cover of the printer.

Check that printer power is off and the release lever is back.

2.
Adjust the paper guides to match the size of paper you will be using.

3.
Remember that printing will start some distance from the left-hand edge
of the carriage.
Place a single sheet between the guides, placing the side on which you

4.
want to print towards the back of the printer. Gently push the paper down
in the guides until you feel it stop.
Turn the platen knob clockwise until the front edge of the paper comes

5.
out from under the top cover.
If the paper is not straight, move the release lever forward, then

6.
straighten the paper by hand and move the release lever back.

11

I

I

/

LOADING AND PARKING FANFOLD FORMS

Fanfold forms have holes along the sides and perforations between the
sheets. They are also called sprocket forms, punched forms, or just plain
“computer paper”. This printer accepts forms up to 10” wide. This section
will take you through the procedures for loading, parking and unparking
fanfold forms.

Loading the paper from the rear of the printer

You can load the fanfold paper either from the rear or from the bottom of the

printer. If you are going to load the paper from the bottom, refer to the next

section.

1. Place a stack of fanfold paper behind and at least one page-length below
the printer.

2. Turn the printer’s power OFF.

3. Push the release lever forward. This has the effect of releasing the paper
from the platen roller, and engaging the tractor feed.

4. Remove the paper guide and put it aside for the moment.

5. Remove the rear cover using the two grips on either side, and push back­wards as in Figure l-11.

-

1-77. nemovmg

me rear cover

6. Move the tractor units downwards by gripping the positioning levers on
both side of the tractor unit as shown in Figure 1-12.

Tractor cover

Figure 1-72. Move the tractor units downwards for loading the paper from the rear

mp lever

7. With the tractor covers open, mount the paper by aligning holes with the
pins on the tractor unit.

Tractor cover

p lever

figure l-73. Mount the fanfold paper over the tractor units

13

8. Adjust the spacing of the tractor units by sliding them along the bar, using
the clamp lever at the back of each unit to release and lock them in

position. When the clamp lever is up, the unit is released, and when it is

down, the unit is locked.

9. Now close the tractor covers, again making sure that the paper holes are
aligned with the pins on the tractor units. If they are not aligned properly,
you will have problems with paper feeding, possibly resulting in tearing
and jamming of the paper.

10. Turn on the power using the switch located at the front of the printer. The
printer will beep, indicating that the paper is not yet fully loaded. The
orange POWER indicator will also flash to confirm this.

11. Now press the ( VCC=,W~ ) button. The paper will be fed and adjusted
past the print head to a position ready for printing.

12. If you want to set the paper to a different position, set the printer off-line
by pressing the (

ON LINE

) button, then set the paper by using the

micro-feed function. (For details, refer to Chapter 2.)

13. Replace the rear cover, and mount the paper guide in the horizontal
position shown in Figure 1-14, so that it will separate the printed from
the unprinted paper.

Figure i-14. Mounting the paper guide for fanfold forms

Loading the paper from the bottom of the printer

You can load the fanfold paper from the bottom of the printer with the
following procedure.

1.

Remove the top cover and the roller unit.

2.

Open the rear cover using the two grips at the side, and push backwards.

3.

Grip the positioning levers on both side of the tractor unit, and pull the

unit upwards as shown in Figure 1-15.

Positioning lever

Positioning lever

Figure 7-75. Pull up the tractor unit for bottom feeding

.-

4.

Place a stack of fanfold paper below the printer.

5.

With the tractor covers open, mount the paper from the bottom of the
printer, by aligning holes with the pins on the tractor unit.

6.

Adjust the spacing of the tractor units by sliding them along the bar, using
the clamp lever at the back of each unit to release and lock them in

position. When the lever is up, the unit is released, and when it is down,

the unit is locked.

Figuro I-16. Mount the fanfold paper from the bottom of the printer.

7. Now close the tractor covers, again making sure that the paper holes are
aligned with the pins on the tractor units. If they are not aligned pIoperly,

you will have problems with paper feeding, possibly resulting in tearing
and jamming of the paper.

8. Remount the roller unit and replace the rear cover and the top cover.

Paper parking

After loading fanfold paper from the rear of the printer, you do not have to

unload it when you want to print on a single sheet. The printer will “park”

it for you if you follow the procedure below.

1. To begin paper parking, start with power ON, fanfold paper loaded in
printing position, and the release lever forward.

2. Press the (
line. ON LINE indicator will turn off.

3. Tear off the printed form at the last perforation, leaving not more than
about half a page showing above the top cover. If necessary, press the

(PAPER FEED) button to feed paper forward until a perforation is located

just above the top cover, and tear there.

4. Press the (

The printer will automatically feed the fanfold form backward until the
paper is completely free of the platen.

ON LINE Ibutton on the control panel to set the printer off-

sEsdscT

1 button on the control panel.

-

16

5. Move the release lever to the back.

6. Mount the paper guide in the upright position.

Now you can load single sheets either automatically or manually, as
explained previously. The fanfold paper remains parked at the back of the
printer.

NOTE:You cannot park the fanfold paper if you have loaded it from the

bottom of the printer.

Paper unparking

When you want to resume using fanfold paper, the procedure is as follows.

1. Remove all single sheets from the printer.

2. Mount the paper guide in the horizontal position.

3. Move the release lever to the front.

4. Press the C TFAF > button. The printer will automatically feed the
parked fanfold paper back into position for printing.

NOTE: The printer beeps intermittently if you move the release lever while

the paper is loaded.

17

LOADING MULTI-PART FORMS

You can print on continuous multi-part forms with the built-in tractor unit.
You can use multi-part forms that have up to four parts including the original
when the Multi-part mode is selected with the EDS setting. (For details,
please refer to Chapter 3.)

It is recommended to use forms jointed by dotted or pasting under the normal

office condition.
Multi-part forms should be pressure sensitive, and should not be used in the

friction feed. (Bottom feed with the pull-tractor is recommended.)

NOTE: When printing continuous multi-part forms, care should be taken,

as the edges of the paper might be damaged.
The tolerance between the dotted or pasted position and other
positions must be less than 0.05 mm.

-

18

ADJUSTING THE PRINTING GAP

The distance between the print head and the platen can be adjusted to
accommodate different paper thicknesses. To make this adjustment, remove

the top cover. The adjustment lever is located at the left side of the printer
mechanism. Pushing the adjustment lever backwards narrows the gap;
pulling it forwards widens the gap.

There are five positions, and you can feel the lever clicking into each
position. The second position from the rear is the one most commonly used
for single sheets of paper. Try different positions until you get the best
printing results. (Do not set the lever out of the marked positions.)

I

Figure 7-77. Location of the adjustment lever

The following table provides the recommended lever positions for each
paper types as a reference.

Paper Type

Single

2-PlY

3-PlY

4-PlY

Weight (g/ml) Thickness (mm)

(Each paper) (Total)

52-82
83 - 90

I

40-58

40-58

40-58

0.07 - 0.10

0.11 - 0.12

I

0.12 - 0.16 3rd

0.18 - 0.20

0.21 - 0.25

0.24 - 0.26

0.27 - 0.30

Recommended

Lever position

I

2nd

3rd

3rd
4th
4th
5th

NOTE: Pressure sensitive paper is recommended for the multi-part paper.

Multi-part mode is recommended when using the 4-ply paper.

(Refer to Chapter 3.)

Chapter 2

CONTROL PANEL OPERATIONS

The control panel buttons can be pressed individually to perform the opera-

tions indicated by their names. Other functions can be achieved by holding
these buttons down when you turn the printer’s power on, or by pressing the
control panel buttons in combination.

This chapter explains all the button and indicator functions.

l Pause printing
l Feed paper (fast and slow, forward and reverse)
l Park fanfold forms
l Set the top-of-form position

9 Select the print pitch

l Select a font
l Print test patterns
l Prevent software from changing the panel pitch and font selections

l Print a hexadecimal dump

9 Clear the printer’s buffer

l Change the print color
l Store macro definition

BUTTONS AND INDICATORS

The printer is equipped with five buttons on the control panel. From left to
right they are,(‘) and (PITCH) (smaller buttons), and C ),

(PAPER FEED), and ( ON LINE )(larger buttons).

The following is a brief guide to the buttons and indicators on the control
panel.

Figure 2-T. Control panel

sE~~~~Cr

21

ON LINE button

The ( ON LINE ) button sets the printer on-line and off-line. The status
changes each time you press the button.

When the printer is on-line, it can receive and print data from the computer.
When the printer is off-line, it stops printing and sends the computer a signal
indicating that it cannot accept data.

The printer powers up in the on-line status if paper is loaded. If paper is not
loaded, the printer powers up off-line with the POWER indicator flashing.
When you load paper, the POWER indicator stops flashing, and the printer
goes on-line.

You will want to press the (

l Before and after any other panel operation

ON LINE

) button:

The other panel buttons operate only in the off-line state. Press the
( ON LINE ) button to go off-line. After performing the panel
operation(s), press the C ON LINE

l To pause during printing

If you press the ( ON LINE

) button again to go back on-line.

> button during printing, the printer stops
printing and goes off-line, allowing you to check the printout or change
a control panel setting. Printing resumes when you press the C

ON LINE )

button again to go back on-line.

l To cut fanfold forms at the end of printing

When using fanfold forms, you can hold the (

ON LINE ) button down

for one second. In addition to going off-line, the printer also feeds the
paper forward approximately two inches. This allows you to cut it off just
below the last line printed.
When you press the C ON LINE

) button again to go back on-line, the

paper feeds backward stopping where you left off.

NOTEShis function is valid only when the buffer is empty.

PAPER FEED button

-

If you press this button while off-line, the paper will feed forward. If you
hold the button down, the printer will perform consecutive line feeds.

22

If you also press the C ON LINE
paper will feed automatically to the top of the next page. This is explained

later.

If you press this button while on-line, this will alternately flash the QUIET
indicator on and off. When in Quiet mode with the QUIET indicator lit, the

printer will print slightly slower, but at a reduced noise level.

) button while you are line-feeding, the

SET/EJECT/PARK button

NOTE: This button has no effect if the bottom feed mode is selected.

Pressing this button causes the printer to begin paper loading if the paper has
not loaded while in the off-line state.

If the paper has been loaded, this button results in different functions de­pending on the position of the release lever.

If the release lever is forward for fanfold forms, pressing this button parks

the forms.

If the release lever is back for single sheets, pressing this button ejects the

paper.

PITCH button

This button allows you to select the printing pitch. Remember that the printer
must be off-line for you to do this. Successive presses of this button will
illuminate (and select) the following options in order:

Pitch

Pica (10 CPI) 1OCPl
Elite (12 CPI)
Condensed pica (17 CPI) lOCPI, COND
Condensed elite (20 CPI) 12CPI, COND

Proportional PROP

Indicator(s)

12CPI

FONT button

This button selects the font to be printed. Draft font is selected at power-up
unless the default settings are changed. To change to HS Draft (High-Speed

Draft) or one of the NLQ (Near Letter Quality) fonts, set the printer off-line,

then press the (FONT) button repeatedly until the indicators beside the

desired selection illumiuate. The selections cycle in the following order:

Font

Draft

Indicator(s)

DRAFT

Sanserif DRAFT, COURIER
Courier
Orator

COURIER
KXJR;R, SCRIPT

script
High-Speed Draft

HS DRAFT

The Orator font is unique in two ways. First, it is larger (higher) than the other

fonts, which makes it a good choice for labels and other text requiring high

visibility. You will need a little extra line spacing when Orator is used.

Second, the Orator font prints small capitals in place of lower-case letters.

The other fonts do not have this option. Lower case will always print as lower

case.

-

24

POWER-UP FUNCTIONS

In addition to their normal functions, all the control panel buttons have
special functions that operate if you hold them down while switching power
on.

Figutv 2-2 Power-up functions of control panel

Short test mode

If the printer is turned on while the ( ON LINE

> button is pressed, the
printer will enter the short self-test mode. The printer will print the version
number of the printer’s ROM, followed by seven lines of the character set.

Each line will be offset by one character from the one before it. The final
result will be something like Figure 2-3. (If the color ribbon is used, eachline
prints in a different color.)

Figure 2-3. Short self-test

Since the self-test occupies the full width of the carriage, it is recommended
that the printer is loaded with the widest paper possible to avoid damage to
the print head and/or platen.

25

Long test mode

If the printer is turned on while the (PAPER FEED) button is pressed, the
printer will enter the long self-test mode. The printer will print the version
number of the printer’s ROM and the current EDS settings, followed by the
whole character set printed in each font and pitch available.

The test cycles endlessly, so you must turn the power off to stop it.

* * * x * * * Ir I: 1: * t * * I 1:

ON

OFF

----+ .-..--I. --_ ._-.-. ____-. .+ ---_______..--. +.--..---- .___^_.

A : 1

A : .’ : RRrl UEage : Input Buffer : “owirli~a4
R : ‘3 : rlx,to-LF

A : 4 : MC Setting

--.-t...- l ..-. ..* -. -~ ~+ ._.... ..-

s : 1 : m,1+, -Im.“t momlr

s : ?
H : 3
E : 4

-..--+ ..--.. +
I

0 : ,‘. 4.4: 18” iod, Py?

pqrsruvwxyzt;,

!“#$%b’()*+,- /0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLNNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\

pqrsruvvxyz (, ,

~“X~~~‘()=+,-./~~~~~~~~S~::<=~~~ASCOEFG~IJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ~\~~~~ABCDEFGHIJKLMNO

PoRsTuvwxvz~:)-

f”#.$‘“‘.

: ImllI3+l‘m

: P,per-out Detevtor: Enabled : Dli-3t,led
: TPsr oft
: I h”5erve~3,

: 1 . 2 : PI ,,,t rn”S,F

: : : lib+, HS or3ft
: : : I~CPI w3tt

: : “437 ON ON ON : WC1

: :

: :

#l&I I
wt., /

,,~I

: STWDGAD : 1t:tl

: Disabled : Fnst,lrd
: Disabled

: Disabled : F-n IL, I.4

: Disabled : Enabled
: Leave ON :
+ ------- ----- t- -----------­: 1Ocpi Draft ON ON

IIT=Im ni. #2. Gr3phlr5~

OFF ON ON :
ON OFF ON : Re!.erved ON @FF r)FT

“~789::(=)7@ABCDEFGHIJCLUN~P~~-

#E&F,

: rnaled

ON OFF
OFF ON

on ON orf
OFF ON OFF

Igun, 24. Long self-test

6

.._

I

‘abcdo4ghLILCww

Since the self-test occupies the full width of the carriage, it is recommended
that the printer is loaded with the widest paper possible to avoid damage to
the print head and/or platen. In addition, the total number of lines printed is
considerable, more than can be accomodated on a single sheet, so fanfold

paper is recommended for this test.

Print area test mode

By holding the,<
enter the print area test mode. This way, you can find out how many lines on
your paper are available for printing. The printer will print the first line
message, then print the last line message after feeding to the bottom of the

page*
If you have loaded the fanfold paper, only the first line message is printed.

SEpf&CT

1 button down during power-up, the printer will

Stay in Panel Pitch

By holding the GTCFi) button down during power-up, the print pitch can
only be selected from the control panel. This prevents software interference.
You will hear an acknowledging beep as power comes on.

After the beep tone, you can set the printer off-line, select a print pitch, then
return to on-line and start printing. The pitch you selected will not be reset
or otherwise changed by any commands your software may issue.

Stay in Panel Font

By holding the (FONT) button during power-up, fonts can only be selected

from the control panel. This prevents software interference. There will be an

acknowledging beep as power comes on, after which you can set the printer
off-line, select a font, then return to the on-line state and begin printing. The
selected font willnotbe changed by any commands your software may issue.

Stay in Panel Pitch and Font

If you want to protect both the pitch and font settings from software changes,
press both the (FiTCi4~ and (FONtI buttons during power-up. There will be
two acknowledging beep tones.

Pressing these buttons during power-up does not prevent you from making
any number of changes later from the control panel.

‘

27

Hexadecimal dump

This feature is useful for programmets who are debugging printing pro­grams and want to see the actual codes the printer is receiving. (Some
computers change the codes the programmer intended.)

In this mode, all data received will be printed in a hexadecimal dump format,
rather than the control codes being acted on as command codes.

This mode is accessed with the following procedure:

1. While holding both the(PAPER FEEDland ( sE~~ScT Ibuttons down,
turn power ON. A beep tone will be heard.

2. Begin printing. In place of the usual printout you will get a formatted
dump showing exactly what data the printer receives. Each line presents
sixteen characters, their hexadecimal codes to the left and printable char­acters printed on the right.

3. At the end of the hexadecimal dump, set the printer off-line with the

( ON LINE > button. This is necessary to print the last line.

The following BASIC program is a simple test you can run in hexadecimal
mode:

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

-

If your system passes the codes directly to the printer without changing
them, you will get a printout like Figure 2-5.

Most BASICS, however, are not quite that straightforward. For exarrmle. the

I

IBM-PC will give you a printout similar to Fi-gure 2-6.

,:ir, <Cl! t-1.: 3-r 8’1*+ c-1” \fS 1/T
I:,F !CC i !

;a‘, r‘, 2” :--: L“? -r -i ;‘;,’
71’1

II T’ 7- ;4 y’ 75 T7

4,-’ 41 4:’ 4:, 44 45 4A 4-7 48 44 40 4B 4C 4D 4E 4F

?.,,:I 5,
hll 51 62 h 54 65 66 67 68 h9 6k hR hC 6D 6F hF
70 71 72 75 74 75 76 77
RO 81 nz ~3 e4 85 i3h 87

9,:) 91 92 93 94 95 96 97
a0 Al a,’

PO Hl H2 HZ S4 B5 Rb 87 Hi3 B9 HA HH PC HD SE SF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

co Cl c2 c1: c4 c5 Cb c7
DO Di D2 D9 D4 D5 D6 D7 DS D9 DA DB DC DD DE DF

Ei:) El E2 E; E4 E5 Eb E7 ES E9 EFI ER EC ED EE EF ::::....

FO Fl F? F3 F4 F-5 F6 F7 FS F9 FFI FR FC FD FE FF . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

c-j,, I-IA

@re 2-6. Sample hexadecimal dump with IBM-PC

17 14 15 i,&

!r‘

._1_1 IL’

5: 53 54 55 56 57

_. 1 SC-’

A? A4 as Ah 67 AR A9 clA AR AC AD AE !AF .“,.............

\‘18 *-<ii <Ifi t-IF< <Ii- CilJ <-,a t.,F

17 Iii j’: 1P lr 1D 1E IF ..“.............

-3 -7 y,:, =p ,i‘ TD YE ?F

-:a ‘Y-7 ‘Xrri ::p :r l.D YE -;:F r:,, >Sq.567E(Q : : = 3

5R 59 :?A 58 Xc: 5D SE ‘;F

7s -?y 70 78
BR 89 SA eH RC flD 8E SF
98 YQ 9A 9H YC 9D 9E YF

C8 C9 CA CH CC CD CE CF

7C 7D -IL! 7F

. . . . . . . ..“......

‘“#$%&‘()L+,-.,

WBCDEFGHI Jt LMhlO
~QwY-uvwxYzI: \ 1 _

Tabcdefghl ji: lmno

pqr-iituvw:-:y~:: 3”

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

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

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

. ..*........

. .

When the IBM-PC BASIC interpreter sends hex code OD (carriage return)
it adds an extra hex OA (line feed). Hex code 1A (end-of-file) also gets

special treatment: the interpreter does not send it at all. This can cause
problems with graphics or download character data. However, you can solve
this problem by changing line 20 in the preceding program and adding the
coding shown below.

Coding for IBM-PC with monochrome display:

20 GOSUB 100
100 X=INP(&H3BD)

:IF X(128

THEN

100
110 OUT &H3BC,I :OUT &H3BE,5 :OUT 6tH3BE.4
120 RETURN

Coding for IBM-PC with color adapter:

20 GOSUB 100
100 X=INP(&H379)

-IF X(128 THEN 100
110 OUT bH378,I :&JT &H37A,5 :OUT &H37A,4
120 RETURN

29

SWITCH COMBINATION FUNCTIONS

Several additional functions can be achieved by pressing the control panel
buttons in combinations.

TOD of Form

Change color

Buffer clear/All reset

Figutu 2-7. Switch combination functions of mntrol panel

Form Feed

Form feed

If you are using single sheets, this operation ejects the current page. If you
are using fanfold forms, it feeds to the top of the next page.

1. Press the C ON LINE > button to set the printer off-line.

2. Press the (PAPER FEED) button and hold it down. The printer will start
performing successive line feeds.

3. While holding the (PAPER FEED] button down, press the ( ON LINE
button, then release both buttons at the same time. The printer will
smoothly eject the current page.

Top of form

When you power on the printer, the top-of-form position is automatically set
to the current position. If this is not where you want the top of the page to be,
you can change the top-of-form position as follows:

1. Press the ( ON LINE > button to set the printer off-line.

2. Move the paper to the desired top-of-form position by pressing the

(PAPER FEED) button, or by performing a forward or reverse micro-feed.

)

30

3. Press and hold the ( ON LINE > button.

4. While holding the (

ON LINE )button down, press the @RR) button,

then release both buttons at the same time. The printer will beep to
indicate that the top-of-form position has been set.

Forward micro-feed

For fine alignment, you can feed the paper forward in very small increments
as follows:

1. Press the (

2. Press the (

ON LINE

ON LINE

) button to set the printer off-line.

) button again. and hold it down.

3. While holding the ( ON LINE ) buttondowqpressthe (PAPER FEED)
button. The paper will start advancing in a series of small steps. When
you want to stop, release both buttons.

Reverse micro-feed

You can also feed the paper in small increments in reverse, to return to a

higher position on the same page.
NOTE: With fanfold forms, do not try to return to a previous page. The per-

foration may catch inside the printer and cause a jam.

1. Press the ( ON LINE

2. Press the (

ON LINE

3. While holding the ( ON LINE

) button to set the printer off-line.
) button again and hold it down.

) button down, press the (

sEK5w’
button. The paper will start moving backwards in a series of small steps.
When you want to stop, release both buttons.

Changing the auto loading value

Normally, the printer automatically loads the paper one line from the top
edge.
If you want to change this value, follow this procedure:

1. Load the paper using the ( SEx~~CT ) button.

2. Change the print position using the micro feed function.
The line on the card holder helps you to align the baseline of characters
to be printed.

3. After you get the desired position, press the (

ON LINE ) button to save

the value.

31

This value will remain unless you power off the printer. If you want to retain
this value even after you turn off the power, store it using the Macro
Definition function, which is described below.

Note that you can only change this value immediately after loading paper.
If you feed paper, you cannot change the auto loading value.

Clearing the buffer/All reset

The printer stores received data in a large memory buffer. This creates a
problem when you want to abandon a printing job and restart: the printer may
be holding more data in its buffer than it has actually printed, and this
unprinted data must be cleared out before restarting. Turning power off is
one way to clear the buffer, but there is another way:

1. Halt the printing program on the computer. If printing stops immedi­ately, the buffer is clear and the rest of this procedure is unnecessary. If

printing does not stop, continue as follows:

2. Press the ( ON LINE

now stop, but there may be data remaining in the buffer.

3. Press and hold the ( ON LINE )button.

4. While pressing the ( ON LINE ) button down, press and hold the
(FONT) button. Continue holding these two buttons down. In one second

you will hear a beep tone signaling that the buffer has been cleared.
If you hold these buttons more three seconds, you will hear three beep
tones signaling that the printer has been initialized to the power-on
default settings.

5. Release these buttons, make any necessary control panel settings, then
set the printer back on-line.

) button to set the printer off-line. Printing will

It is essential to halt the printing program on the computer before you go off­line. Otherwise, when you go back on-line the computer will start sending
data again and the printer will continue printing, with missing data where the
buffer was cleared.

NOTE : If you are using the SPC-8K, Serial-Parallel Converter, reset the

converter by pressing the red Clear button on it before you reset the
printer.

Selecting the print color

Normally, this printer prints with black even if the color ribbon is installed.

Without the aid of software, you can change the printing color as follows:

1. Press the( ON LINE ) button to set the printer off-line.

2. Press the m button and hold it down.

3. While holding the (FONT) button, press the (
Each time you press the

button, one of the indicators of

SEJ,ff&“T

FONT or PITCH will blink to show the current color as shown below.

) button.

4. Release both buttons after you set the desired printing color.
If you want to save the selected color for later use, store it using the

Macro Definition.

NOTE: This function is valid only when the color ribbon is installed into the

printer.

Store Macro Definition

You can store the current settings to the printer for later use with the
following procedure:

1. Press the( ON LINE

) button to set the printer off-line.

2. Press the (FONT) button and hold it down.

3. While holding the (FONT) button down, press the (PITCH) button and

hold them down until you hear two beep tones.

4. Release both buttons at the same time after the two beep tones to store
the current setting.
If you release these buttons after three beep tones, the macro is cleared.

NOTE: You can store the following settings with this procedure.

l Current Font and Pitch
l Current auto-loading amount for cut sheet

l Current auto-loading amount for continuous paper
l Current auto-loading amount in ASF mode
l Current print color

Data to be stored are controlled in Standard mode and IBM mode separately.
For example, the data stored in the Standard mode are not effective in the
IBM mode, and vice versa.

33

MEMO

Chapter 3

DEFAULT SETTINGS

Most printers use a bank of DIP (Dual In-line Package) switches inside the
printer to achieve various functions. However, this printer can change the
power-up default settings by using the Electronic DIP Switch (EDS) mode.

This chapter explains how to use the EDS mode.

HOW TO SET THE EDS MODE

The EDS mode has 16 kinds of functions you can set as the power-on default.
To enter the EDS mode, turn the printer on while simultaneously holding the

( , (PAPER FEED) and ( ON LINE 1 buttons.

PAM

In EDS mode, the indicators and the buttons on the control panel are used
as shown below in Figure 3-l.

. Use the(RVV1button to select the Bank Number. One of the FONT indi-

cators will illuminate to show the selected Bank Number.

. Use the (PITCH)button to select the Switch Number. One of the PITCH in-

dicators will illuminate to show the selected Switch Number.

l The QUIET indicator shows the current setting.

If you want to set it ON, press the (

l Press the (PAPER FEED)button to print out the current settings.
l Press the( ON LINE 1 button to save the new settings and to exit the EDS

SETpAE&CT

> button.

mode.

igure 3-7. Button and indicator functions in the EDS mode

FUNCTIONS OF THE EDS SETTINGS

The printer is factory-set with all EDS switches in the ON position. These

are the standard settings. By changing the settings, you can alter various
printer functions to match your requirements. The following questions will
help you choose the proper settings.

Page Length

D-l Character Table

(Standard mode) Graphics

(IBM mode) Set #2
D-2 IBM Code page or
D-3 International Character
D-4

Switch A-l: Do you want to use the printer in Standard mode or IBM

Select the mode compatible with your computer and software. In Standard

mode the printer operates like the Epson FX-850. In IBM mode it operates
like the IBM Proprinter III. The ON position selects Standard mode. The

OFF position selects IBM mode. For color printing use the Standard mode
and select the Epson EX-800.

36

Set

mode?

(See below)

(See below)

Italics
Set #l

I

I

Switch A-2: Does your software download characters to the printer’?
In order to download characters this switch must be in the OFF position. The

printer then uses its RAM memory for storing character patterns and
provides only a one-line print buffer. If you leave this switch ON, the printer
uses its RAM memory as an input buffer, allowing the computer to send data
faster than the printer prints.

Switch A-3: Do you want an automatic line feed?
If you leave this switch in the ON position, a separate line-feed code is

required from your computer to obtain a line feed.

If you move this switch to the OFF position, the printer performs both a
carriage return and line feed each time it receives a carriage-return code.

Most computer systems send a line feed code, or both a carriage return and
line feed, at the end of each line, so this switch should be left ON.

If you get double line spacing when you expect single spacing, or if lines
overprint each other, try changing the setting of this switch.

Switch A-4: Are you going to use the automatic sheet feeder (ASF)?
In order to use the automatic sheet feeder SF-lODN, move this switch to the

OFF position. Otherwise leave it ON.
Switch B-l: Are you going to print on multi-part paper?

You can use up to 3-ply paper when this switch is ON. If you want to print
on 4-ply paper, set this switch to the OFF position.

Switch B-2:

Do you want the printer to stop printing at the end of the paper,
or to keep printing?

When this switch is OFF the printer ignores the paper-out detector and prints
down to (and beyond) the bottom edge. Otherwise leave it ON.

Switch B-3: Do you want to advance paper automatically at the end of

printing?

You can select the Tear Off function with this switch OFF.

When using fanfold paper, the Tear Off function allows you to tear off one
sheet of paper without fully advancing the following sheet.

Switch B-4: This switch is used for technical purpose only. Leave this

switch ON.

Switches C-l and C-2: Which print mode do you want to set?
These switches select the default print pitch and the fonts as shown below.

piEE&gg

NOTE:If you change these switches after you have stored the macro, these

settings will override the macro setting.

Switches C-3 and C-4: What is the page length of your paper?

Leave these switches ON if you will be using 1 l-inch forms. You will need

to change the switches if you will be using a different page length as shown
below:

Switch D-l: The action of this switch depends on the mode chosen with

switch A- 1.

If you selected Standard mode, do you want italic or graphic
characters?

Move this switch OFF to print italics in the Standard character set. If you
leave this switch in the ON position, in place of italics you will get the
graphic characters, international characters, and mathematical symbols of
IBM character set #2. See Chapter 9, character codes 128 to 254.

-

-

-

-

-

If you selected IBM mode, do you want IBM character set #l or #2?

ON selects character set #2, which is for computers with an 8-bit interface
(the most common kind). OFF selects character set #l , for computers with
a 7-bit interface.

Switches D-2 to D-4: Do you want an international character set or IBM

code page?

International character sets differ in their assignment of 12 character codes
in the Standard Italic character set. See the character tables at the back of this
manual. With these switches you can select one of eight character sets as
follows:

Except in the Standard Italic character set, these switches select the default

character code page

as shown below:

39

BIDIRECTIONAL TEST/ADJUSTMENT MODE

This mode is used to adjust the alignment of the print head on successive
bidirectional passes. After a period of some months, your printer may work
itself out of alignment on left and right printing passes. This will be most
evident in NLQ printing. This mode will probably be used very rarely.

1. Turn the printer off and then turn it on again while holding down the
( sE~r=&CT ) and ( ON LINE > buttons. The printer will then print

something like the following:

f#Y PI<’

CURRENT 0 :

2. The printer will feed the paper forwards and backwards during this
operation, allowing you to view the paper for optimum alignment.

3. To adjust the printing, use the (
TheC

(PAPER FEED) button will move the second pass to the right.

4. When the two passes are aligned with each other to form one continuous
line, the bidirectional alignment test is completed.

5. To save the corrected value and to exit from this mode, press the (PITCH
button.

t*+ ’

CURRENT 0 :
CURRENT -1 :

w

CURRENT
\*i i'i! *y*

NOTE:If you want to print NLQ characters unidirectionally, press the

(PAPER FEED) button several times until the “UNI” message ap-

pears.

ADJU~TMFNT SETTING LtL

SEpf&CT

) button will move the second pass to the left. The

.:, ,.,r p/ _

0 :

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

stpf&c’

5FTTIW 111:

//////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////

)and (PAPER FEED) buttons.

__

--

-

-

-

-

-

40

Chapter 4

PRINTER CONTROL COMMANDS

The printer has two emulation modes: Standard mode and IBM mode.

In standard mode, the printer emulates the functions of the Epson FX-850

or EX-800 for color print.

In IBM mode, the printer emulates the IBM Proprinter III. Additional

command codes are included as a superset of these emulations.
The emulation is changed by means of EDS switch A-l. When ON, the

printer will be in standard mode, and when OFF, the printer will be in IBM
mode (see Chapter 3). It is not possible to change the emulation mode by

means of software control.
This chapter describes the printer’s control commands. Some commands are

common to both the standard and IBM modes. In the descriptions of the com­mands, all commands will be categorized by function. The name of each
command is followed by a table like the one below:

Mode ASCII

std.

<ESC> “X” ” ” 1 27 120 49 10 78 31

cEsc> “X" cl>

Mode:

Indicates the mode in which the command is mcog-

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 120 1 1B 78 01

nized.

Standard mode (EDS switch A-l on)

Std.
IBM IBM mode (EDS switch A-l off)
Both Both standard and IBM modes

ASCII: Indicates the ASCII coding of the command.

Control characters am enclosed in pointed brack-

ets: For example, <l> means character code 1.
Decimal: Gives the command in decimal character codes.
Hexadecimal: Gives the command in hexadecimal character

codes.

Parameters for which values must be supplied are indicated by italic letters
such as n.

41

FONT CONTROL COMMANDS

Select draft quality characters

klode

Bo* “(.. ..(.* “F’ ,.).. ‘,)w Y' 40 40 70 41

Std.

IBM

ASCII

&SC> uxw "0' 27 120

<ESC> “X” co> 27 120

&SC> "I" "0"

<ESC> “I” <O> 27 73

Decimal Hexadecimal

48 18 78 30

27 73

48 1B 49 30

Changes from near letter quality to draft quality. Ignored if the
(FONT) button was pressed during power-up.

Select draft elite characters

Mode

IBM

ASCII

cESC> “I” “1” 27 73
<Esc> “I” <l> 27 73

Changes to draft quality characters with elite pitch (12 cpi). Ignored
if the (FONT) or (PITCH) button was pressed during power-up.

Decimal Hexadecimal

49 1B 49 31

Select NLQ characters

I vlode

Std.

IBM <ES6 “I” &

ASCII

&SC> .y. “1” 27 120

<ESC> “X” cl> 27 120

disc> "I" "2" 27 73

<ESC> “I” “3” 27 73
<ESC> “I” O> 27 73

Decimal Hexadecimal

49 1B 78 31

50 1B 49 32

27 73

51 16 49 33

41 57 28 28 46 29 29 39

0 1B 78 00

0 IB 49 00

1 1B 49 01

1 1B 78 01

2 1B 49 02

3 1B 49 03

- .

1

42

Changes from draft quality to near letter quality. The initial NLQ
font is Courier unless a different font has been selected by a pnxed­ing command. Ignored if the (FONf) button was pressed during
power-up.

Select NLQ font

Mode ASCII

Both <ESC> “k” n 27 107 n 10 60 n

Decimal

Hexadecimal

Selects an NLQ font according to the value of n. In draft mode, this
command remains dormant and takes effect later when NLQ is
selected. Ignored if the (FONT) button was pressed during power-

up.

n Font

0 Courier (initial value)

1 Sanserif

4 script

7 Orator

Select Courier characters

Mode] ASCII 1 Decimal

Both 1 “(.. ‘Y”

*IF’ “),.

‘7” “0”

40 70 41 41 48

1 40

Changes to the Courier NLQ font. Ignored if the (FoNt)button was

pressed during power-up.

Hexadecimal

1 28 28 46 29

Select Sanserif characters

Mode ASCII

Both ,.(.. ..(,B

“F’ ,,),,

,,),. "1" 40

Decimal Hexadecimal

40 70 41 41 49

28 28 46 29

29 30

29 31

Changes to the Sanserif NLQ font. Ignored if the (FONT)button was

pressed during power-up.

Select Script characters

Mode ASCII

Bo* ‘.(.. ..(,,

Changes to the Script NLQ font. Ignored if the (J%NT) button was
pressed during power-on.

“F’ w).,

‘,)w -4" 40

Decimal

40 m 41 41 52

Hexadecimal

28 28 46 29

29 34

43

Select Orator characters

Mode

Both “(” ,‘(., “F’

ASCII Decimal

.,yl .,).. 6.7” 40 40 m

Changes to the Orator NLQ font. Ignored if the (FONT) button was
pressed during power-up.

Select italic characters

Mode

Std.

ASCII

cESC> “4” 27 52 10 34

Causes subsequent characters to be printed in italics.

Select NLQ italic characters

Mode ASCII

IBM

cEsc>

T <VT> 27 73 11 10 49 00

Causes subsequent characters to be printed in italics with NLQ

characters. Ignored if the (FONt) button was pressed during power
UP-

Select upright characters

Mode ASCII

Std.

<Esc!> “5”

27 53 10 35

Hexadecimal

41 41 55 28 2a 46 29 29 37

Decimal Hexadecimal

Decimal Hexadecimal

Decimal Hexadecimal

-

-

Stops italic printing and causes subsequent characters to be printed
upright.

Emphasized printing

Mode ASCII

Both

44

<Esc> “E”

Causes subsequent draft characters to be emphasized by adding
extra thickness to vertical strokes.

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 69

10 45

Cancel emphasized printing

Mode ASCII

Both <ESC> “F’

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 70 10 46

Cancels emphasized printing.

Double-s trike printing

Mode ASCII

Both <ESC> “G”

Causes subsequent characters to be printed in double-strike mode
with a slight vertical paper motion in between, causing a thickening
of horizontal strokes.
For bold print, use of double-strike is recommended in NLQ mode,
and combined use of emphasized and double-strike is recom­mended in draft mode.
Double-strike cannot be used with superscripts or subscripts.

Decimal

27 71 10 47

Cancel double-strike printing

Mode

Both cESC> “H”

ASCII

Cancels double-strike printing.

Decimal

27 72

Hexadecimal

Hexadecimal

10 46

Start underlining

Mode

Both <ESC> “1”

ASCII

“-”

<ESC> ‘G-” <I>

Causes subsequent characters to be underlined. IBM block graphics
characters and spaces skipped by horizontal tabulation are not

underlined.

Decimal

27 45 49 10 20 31
27 45 1 10 2D 01

Hexadecimal

45

Stop underlining

Mode ASCII

Both

<ESC> “0’ 27 45 48 10 2D 30

<ES& “I <()> 27 45 0 10 2D 00

“I

Stops underlining.

Start 0 verlining

Mode ASCII

IBM

<ESC> ” ”

<ESC> ‘I-” cl> 27 95 1 10 5F 01

“1” 27 95 49 10 5F 31

_

Causes subsequent characters to be overlined. Spaces skipped by
horizontal tabulation are not overlined.

Stop overlining

1 Mode 1 ASCII

<Esc> ‘6 9. IBM “0’ I27 95 48 1 10 5F 30 _
cESC> “ ~” CO> 12795 0 1 10 5F 00

Stops overlining.

Superscript

Decimal

Decimal Hexadecimal

1 Decimal 1 Hexadecimal 1

Hexadecimal

Mode ASCII

Both

cESC> “S” “0’ 27 83 40 10 53 30
<ESC> “S” <O> 27 03 0 10 53 00

Causes subsequent characters to be printed as superscripts. Does not
change the character pitch.

Subscript

Mode ASCII

Both

46

<ESC> ‘3” “1” 27 03 49 10 53 31

cESC> "s" <l> 27 83 1 10 53 01

Causes subsequent characters to be printed as subscripts. Does not
change the character pitch.

Decimal Hexadecimal

Decimal

Hexadecimal

-

Cancel superscript or subscript

Mode

Both <ESC> ‘T”

ASCII

Decimal

27 84

Stops printing superscripts or subscripts and returns to normal
printing.

CHARACTER SET COMMANDS

Select standard character set

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal

<ES6
<ESC>

“t” “0” 27
Y’ <o>

116 48 10 74

27 116

Selects the standard character set. This is the power-up default in
Standard mode if EDS switch D-l is OFF.

Select IBM character set

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<ESC>
<ESC>

“t”

“1”

“t” cl>

27 116
27 116

Selects an IBM character set. This is the power-up default in IBM
mode.

Hexadecimal

10 54

Hexadecimal

0 10 74

49 10 74

1 10 74

30
00

31
01

Select character set #7

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Both cESC> “7” 27 55 10 37

Selects character set #l .

Select character set #2

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal

<ESC> “6” 27 54 10 36

Hexadecimal

Selects character set #2.

47

Select international character set

-

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ES& “R” n

Selects an international character set in the Standard character set
according to the value of n.

n Character set n Character set

0 U.S.A 8 Japan

1 France
2 Germany 10 Denmark II
3 England

4 Denmark1 12 Latin America

5 Sweden
6 Italy

7 Spain I 64 Legal

The first eight of these character sets (from U.S.A. to Spain I) can
be selected as power-up defaults by EDS switches D-2 to D-4.

Select IBM code page

Mode ASCII

Both <ESC>

“[,’ ‘T” <4> <o>

CO> nl n2

CO>

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 82 n 10 52 n

9 Norway

11 Spain II

13 Korea
14 Irish

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 91 94 4 0

0 0 nl n2

105054

00 00 nl

-

0400

n2

Changes the code page of the current IBM character set according

to the values of nl and n.2.

nl n2

1 181
3 82
3 92
3 93

3 95
3 97

Code page

#437 U.S.A.
#850 Multi-lingual
#860 Portuguese
#86 1 Icelandic
#863 Canadian French

#865 Nordic

These code pages can be selected as power-up defaults by EDS

switches D-2 to D-4.

Enable printing of a// character codes

Mode

IBM

ASCII Decimal

eESC> ‘T’ nl n2

27 92 nl n2 10 5C nl n2

Hexadecimal

Enables printing of all characters in the IBM character set, including
those assigned to character codes which are normally considered
control codes. This command remains in effect for the next nl + n2
x 256 character, where nl and n2 are numbers between 0 and 255.
During this interval no control functions am executed. If a code with
no assigned character is received, the printer prints a space.

Enable printing of all character codes on next
character

Mode

IBM

ASCII

<Esc> “c)” 27 94 10 5E

This command operates like &SC> ‘Y” except that it remains in
effect for only one character.

Decimal Hexadecimal

Select slash zero

Mode

Std.

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

&SC>

<ESC>

I

6‘ 39

“1”

‘4 ” - <l>

27 126 49
27 126 1

10 7E 31
10 7E 01

Causes subsequent zero characters to be overprinted with a slash
(0).

Select normal zero

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ES6

<Rx>

“ 1, _ “ 0 9,

“ -" <o>

Causes subsequent zero characters to be printed normally (0),
without a slash.

Decimal

27 126 48
27 126 0

Hexadecimal

10 7E 30
10 7E 00

49

CHARACTER SIZE AND PITCH COMMANDS

Pica pitch

ASCII 1 Decimal

<ESC> “F”’ 1 27 80 1 10 50

<Dc2> I ia I 12

1 Hexadecimal 1

In Standard mode, changes from elite to pica pitch (10 cpi) or from
condensed elite to condensed pica (17 cpi). In IBM mode, changes
from either elite or condensed to pica (10 cpi). Ignored if the(FiTGi)
button was pressed during power-up.

Elite pitch

1 Mode

I std.

LEM

ASCII I Decimal I Hexadecimal 1

<ESC> “M” 1 27 77 1 10 4D I

<ESC> 2” 1 27 68

1 10 3A

Changes from pica to elite pitch (12 cpi) or from condensed pica to
condensed elite (20 cpi). Ignored if the (PITCH)button was pressed
during power-up.

Condensed printing

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Both .

CSb 15 OF

<ESC> <Sb 27 15 10 OF

I

50

Changes from pica to condensed pica (17 cpi) or from elite to
condensed elite (20 cpi). Ignored if the (PITCH) button was pressed ­during power-up.

-

Cancel condensed printing

Mode ASCII

Both cDC2>

Decimal Hexadecimal

ia 12

In Standard mode, changes from condensed pica to normal pica or
from condensed elite to normal elite. In IBM mode, always changes
to normal pica. Ignored if the @liTi button was pressed during

power-up.

Expanded printing

Mode

Both <ESC> “w” “1” 27 87 49 10 57 31

ASCII

<ESC> “w” cl> 27 87 1 10 57 01

Causes subsequent characters to be expanded to double width.

Decimal Hexadecimal

Cancel expanded printing

Mode

Both <ESC> “w” “0’ 27 87 48 10 57 30

ASCII

<ESC> “w” <0> 27 87 0 10 57 00

Stops expanded printing and returns to normal width.

Decimal Hexadecimal

Expanded printing for one line

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal

<so> 14

cESC> <SO> 27 14 10 OE

Hexadecimal

OE

Causes subsequent characters in the current line to be expanded to
double width. Characters return to normal width after the next line
feed (<LF>). The <DC4>, <VT>, d;F>, and <ESC> “w” 0 com­mands also cancel expanded printing.

51

Cancel one-line expanded printing

Mode

Both

ASCII

<Jx4>

Decimal

20

Hexadecimal

14

Stops one-line expanded printing set with <SO> or <ESC> <SO>.
Does not cancel <ES0 “W” 1.

Select proportional spacing

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Std.

IBM

<ESC> “‘p”

<ESC> “p”
<ESC> “I”’

“1”
cl>
cl>

27 112
27 112
27 60

49 10

1 10
1 10

m 31
m 01

50 01

Causes subsequent characters to be proportionally spaced. Ignored
if the (PITCFI) button was pressed during power-up.

Select fixed spacing

IMode ASCII Decimal

48 10

Std.

IBM

&SC> .,,,,

<ESC> “p”
<ESC> “I”’

“0’

CO>

<O>

27 112
27 112
27 80

Causes subsequent characters to be printed with fixed character

spacing. Ignored if the(FiiTii]button was pressed during power-up.

0 10
0 10

Hexadecimal

m 30

70 00
50 00

Select master print mode

Mode ASCII Decimal

Std. <ESC> “!” n 27 33 n 10 21 n

Selects a combined print mode according to the value of n. The

value of n is the sum of the values given below for the desired char-

acteristics.

52

Hexadecimal -

-

Examples: n = 1 gives elite; n

= 9 (1 + 8) gives emphasized elite; n

= 137 (1 + 8 + 128) gives underlined emphasized elite.

Function n value

Underline
Italic 64

Expanded

Double strike

Emphasized 8

Condensed [ *]
Proportional [ *] 2
Elite [*]

[ *] Ignored if the (PITCH) button was pressed during power-up.

increase character spacing

128

32

16

4

1

Mode ASCII

Std.

<ES& cSP> n 27 32 n

Decimal Hexadecimal

Increases the space between characters by n/240 inches, where n is

a number from 0 to 127. Used in microjustification.

Select double or quadruple size

Mode ASCII

Std. <ESC>

Selects the size of subsequent characters as shown below. Extra­high characters align along the cap-line of normal characters, with
the base line temporarily moving down. Line spacing is temporarily
doubled when n = 1 and quadrupled when II = 2.

“h” n 27104 n 1B 68 n

n Effect
0 Normal size

1 Double-high, double-wide

2 Quadruple-high, quadruple-wide

Decimal Hexadecimal

1B 20 n

Select character size

Mode ASCII

Both “(,, ‘.(.. ‘6s” .,),, .,).. n

Decimal

40 40 83 41 41 n 26 28 53 29 29 n

Hexadecimal

Selects a combination of character height and width according to the
value of n, as below. Does not move the base line.

n Character width
0 Single width

Character height
Single height

1 Double width Single height
2 Single width Double height
3 Double width

Double height

Double-height characters are always printed at near letter quality.
Double height printing temporarily cancels the super/subscript and
condensed printing modes, but these modes resume when the

printer returns to normal height.

Print double-height characters

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Std.

<ESC> “w” “1”
&SC> “W” cl>

Prints subsequent characters at double height without moving the
base line, and without changing the line spacing. Temporarily
cancels super/subscript and condensed printing modes.

27 119 49 10 77 31

27 119 1

10 77 01

-

Return to normal height

Mode

Std.

54

ASCII

<ESC> “w” “0”

cEsc> “W" co> 27 119 0

Terminates double-height printing and prints subsequent characters
at normal height. Resumes super/subscript and condensed printing
if these modes were in effect before double height was selected.

Decimal Hexadecimal -

27 119 49 10 77 30

10 77 00

Select character height, width, and line spacing

Mode

IBM

ASCII

<ESC> “[” “@I” ~47 <O>

CO7 CO7 n m 0 0 nm WOO nm

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 91 64 4 0 10 50 40 04 00

Selects a combination of character height, width, and line spacing
according to the value of rr and m, as below. Does not move the base
line.

Line spacing

n

0 Unchanged

1

Unchanged

2 Unchanged

Character height ­Unchanged

Single height

Double height
16 Single Unchanged
17 Single

Single height
18 Single Double height

32 Double
33 Double
34 Double

m

Character width

Unchanged

Single height

Double height

1 Single width (same as <ESC> “W” 0)

2 Double width (same as cESC> “w” 1)

Double-height characters are always printed at near letter quality.
Double height printing temporarily cancels the super/subscript and
condensed printing modes, but these modes resume when the

printer returns to normal height.

VERTICAL POSITION COMMANDS

Set line spacing to I/8 inch

Mode ASCII

Both

cEsc7 “0”

Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in subsequent line
feeds to l/8 inch.

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 48 10 30

Set line spacing to 7/72 inch

Mode ASCII Decimal

Both cBsc> “1” 27 49

Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in subsequent line
feeds to 7/72 inch.

Set line spacing to I/6 inch

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<Esc> “2” 27 50

Decimal Hexadecimal

Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in subsequent line
feeds to l/6 inch.

Set line spacing to n/216 inch

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<Esc> "3" n 27 St n

Sets the distance the paper advances or reverses in subsequent line
feeds to n/216 inch, where n is between 0 and 255. If n = 0, in
Standard mode the line-feed distance is set to 0, but in IBM mode

this command is ignored.

Set line spacing to nD2 inch

Hexadecimal

1B 31

1B 32

18 33 n

Mode ASCII

Both

cEsc> “A” n

In Standard mode, sets the distance the paper advances or reverses
in subsequent line feeds to n/72 inch, where n is between 0 and 255.
If n = 0, the line spacing is set to 0.

In IBM mode this command does the same except that (1) the new
line spacing does not take effect until the next <ES0 “2”
command, and (2) if n = 0, the <ES0 “A” command is ignored.

56

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 65 n

1841 n

-

-

-

-

Execute <ES& ‘A”

Mode

IBM

ASCII Decimal

<ESC> “2” 27 50

Sets the line spacing to the value defined by the last preceding
<ESC> “A” command. Sets the line spacing to l/6 inch if there is
no preceding <ES0 “A” command.

Line feed

Mode ASCII

Both

<LF> 10

Prints the current line and feeds the paper to the next line. See the
preceding commands for the line spacing.

Reverse line feed

Mode ASCII

Std. cESC>

IBM <ESC>

Prints the current line and feeds the paper in the reverse direction to
the preceding line. See the preceding commands for the line
spacing. Ignored when friction feed is used.

<LF>

“1”

Hexadecimal

1B 32

Decimal

Decimal

27 10 1B OA

27 93 1B 5D

Hexadecimal

OA

Hexadecimal

Perform one n/216-inch line feed

Mode

Both <ESC> “J-’ n 27 74 n

ASCII Decimal

Feeds the paper once by n/2 16 inches, where n is between 1 and 255.
Does not move the print position right or left in the standard mode.
Does not change the line-spacing setting.

Hexadecimal

1B 4A n

57

Perform one n/216=inch reverse line feed

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ESC> “j” n

Decimal

27 106 n

Feeds the paper once by n/216 inches in the reverse direction, where

n is between 1 and 255. Does not move the print position right or left.
Does not change the line-spacing setting.

Feed paper n lines

hnode

Std.

ASCII

<ESC> “f’ “1” n 27 102 49 n 1B 66 31 n
<ESC> “f <l> n 27 102 1 n 1B 66 01 n

Feeds the paper n lines from the current line, where n is between 0
and 127.

Decimal Hexadecimal _

Set top of page at current position

Mode ASCII

IBM

<ESC> “4”

Sets the current position as the top-of-page position. Note that this
can also be done from the control panel.

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 52

Set page length to n lines

Hexadecimal

1B 6A n

1B 34

Mode ASCII

Both <ESC> “c” n

Sets the page length to n lines in the current line spacing, where n -

is between 1 and 127 in Standard mode or between 1 and 64 in IBM
mode. Changing the line spacing later does not alter the physical
page length. The current line becomes the top of the page.

58

Decimal

27 67 n

Hexadecimal

1B 43 n

-

Set page length to n inches

Mode ASCII Decimal

Both <ES& “C!” <O> n

27 67 0 n lB4300 n

Sets the page length to n inches, where n is between 1 and 32 in
Standard mode or between 1 and 64 in IBM mode. The current line
becomes the top of the page.

Set bottom margin

Mode ASCII

Both

<ESC> “IV n 27 70 n

Sets the bottom margin to n lines, where n is between 1 and 127 in
Standard mode or between 1 and 255 in IBM mode. The bottom
margin is reset when you change the page length.

Decimal Hexadecimal

Cancel bottom margin

Mode

Both <ESC> “0”

ASCII

Cancels the bottom margin.

Decimal

27 79 1B 4F

Form feed

Hexadecimal

lB4E n

Hexadecimal

.

Mode 1 ASCII

Both 1 cFF>

Decimal

I 12

Hexadecimal

I oc

Feeds the paper to the top of the next page according to the current
page length, and moves the print position to the left margin. When
the automatic sheet feeder (ASF) is selected (EDS switch A-4 is
OFF), this command ejects the current page.

59

Return to top of current page

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ESC> <FF>

Feeds the paper backward to the top of the current page. Ignored
when friction feed is used.

Disable paper-out detector

Mode

Both

ASCII

cESC> “8”

Causes the printer to disregard the signal sent by the paper-out
detector, enabling printing to the bottom of the paper. Overrides the
setting of EDS switch B-2.

Enable paper-out detector

Mode

Both

ASCII

cESC> “9”

Causes the printer to stop printing before the end of the paper.
Overrides the setting of EDS switch B-2.

Set vertical tab stops

Decimal

27 12

Decimal

27 56

Decimal

27 57

Hexadecimal

18 OC

Hexadecimal

1B 38

Hexadecimal

1B 39

-

.-

Mode

Both

60

ASCII

<ESC> "B" nl n2

Decimal

. . . CO> 27 66 nl n2 . . . 0 1B 42 nl d . . . 00

Hexadecimal

Cancels all current vertical tab stops and sets new vertical tab stops
at lines nl, n2, etc., where nl, n2, etc. are numbers between 1 and

255. A maximum of 16 vertical tab stops can be set. The tab stops
must be specified in ascending order; any violation of ascending
order terminates the tab stop list. Standard termination is by the <O>
control code. The vertical tab stops are set in terms of the current line

spacing and do not move if the line spacing is changed later.

Set vertical tab stops every n lines

Mode ASCII

Std.

<ESC>
cESC>

“e” “1” n
“e” -cl> n

Decimal

101 49 n

27

101 1 n

27

Hexadecimal

1B 65 31 n
IB 65 01 n

Cancels all current vertical tab stops and sets new tab stops every n

lines, where n is between 2 and 127.

Set vertical tab stops in channel

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ESC> “b” n0 nl

n2

. . . <o>

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 96 no nl

n2 . . . 0

1B 62 no nl

n2 . . . 00

Cancels all current vertical tab stops in channel n0, (where nO is
between 0 and 7) and sets new vertical tab stops in this channel. (A
channel is a set of vertical tab stops selected by the <ES0 “/”
command.) See <ES0 “B” for parameters nl, n2, . . . CO>.

Select vertical tab channel

c

i

Mode ASCII

Std. <ESC>

Selects a set of vertical tab stops designated by a channel number

“r’ no 27 47 n0

(no) from 0 to 7. The tab stops in each channel are set by cESC> “b”.

Decimal Hexadecimal

1B 2F &I

Vertical tab

Mode ASCII

Both

<VT>

Feeds the paper to the next vertical tab stop and moves the print
position to the left margin. Performs a line feed if no vertical tabs are
set, as at power-up. Feeds to the top of the next page if vertical tabs
are set but the current line is at or below the last vertical tab stop.

Decimal Hexadecimal

11

OB

61

HORIZONTAL POSITION COMMANDS

Set left margin

[Mode 1 ASCII 1 Decimal

) Hexadecimal I

1 std. 1 cESC> “1” n 127108 n lB6C n

Sets the left margin at column n (where n is between 0 and 255) in
the current character pitch (pica pitch if proportional spacing is
selected). The left margin does not move if the character pitch is
changed later. The left margin must be at least two columns to the
left of the right margin and within the limits below:

Pica
Elite

Condensed pica

Condensed elite
Expanded pica
Expanded elite
Expanded condensed pica
Expanded condensed elite

OIn176
O<n191
05:n<130
Olnl 152
05n5:38
05n145
OIn164

05n176

Set right margin

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Std.

<ES& “Q” n 27 81 n 18 51 n

Sets the right margin at column n in the current character pitch (pica
pitch if proportional spacing is currently selected). Column n
becomes the last character position in the line. The right margin does

must be within the limits below:

-

-

-

- not move if the character pitch is changed later. The right margin

62

Pica
Elite

Condensed pica
Condensed elite

Expanded pica
Expanded elite
Expanded condensed pica

Expanded condensed elite

4InI80
55nS96
71n< 137

81nS 160

2In140
35n548
45nS68
4InI80

Set leff and right margins

t

i

Mode ASCII

IBM

<ESC> “X” nl n2

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 88 nl n2 1B 58 nl n2

Sets the left margin at column nl and the right margin at column n2.
See the preceding commands for margin restrictions and other
notes.

Carriage return

. .

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<CR> 13 OD

Prints the current line and returns the next print position to the left

margin. If EDS switch A-3 is OFF, also performs a line feed.

Set automatic line feed

IMode 1 ASCII

pBM( cESC> “5” <l>

Causes the printer to perform both a carriage return and line feed
each time it receives a <CR> code. This command takes priority
over EDS switch A-3.

[ Decimal [ Hexadecimal 1

1 27 53 1 1B 35 01

Cancel automatic line feed

Mode

IBM <ES& “5” <O>

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Causes the printer to perform only a carriage return when it receives
a <CR> code. This command takes priority over EDS switch A-3.

Backspace

Mode

Both CBS>

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Moves the print position one column to the left. Ignored if the print

position is at the left margin. This command can be used to

overstrike or combine characters.

27 53 0

8 08

1B 35 00

63

Left justify

IMode 1 ASCII

<ESC> “a” “0” 27 97 48 1B 61 30

Std.

<ESC> “a” CO> 1 27 97 0 IIB 61 00

1 Decimal

1 Hexadecimal I

Aligns subsequent text with the left margin, leaving the right margin
ragged.

Center text

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<ESC> “a” “1” 27 97 49 1B 61 31

Std.

<ESC> “a” cl> 27 97 1 1B 61 01

Centers subsequent text between the left and right margins.

Right justify

Mode ASCII Decimal

<ESC> “a” “2” 27 97 50 1B 61 32

Std.

<ESC> “a” c2> 27 97 2 IB 61 02

Aligns subsequent text with the right margin, leaving the left margin

ragged.

Hexadecimal

Full justify

Mode

Std.

64

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<ESC> ‘IaW “ II

<ES0 “a” c3> 27 97 3 lB 61 03

3 27 97 51 IB 61 33

Aligns subsequent text between the left and right margins.

Set horizontal tab stops

Mode ASCII Decimal

Both cESC> “D” nl n2 . . . CO> 27 68 nl n2 . . . 0 1B 44 nl n2 . . . 00

Hexadecimal

Cancels all current horizontal tab stops and sets new tab stops at
columns nl, n2, etc. in the current character pitch (pica pitch if pro­portional spacing is currently selected), where nl, ~2, etc. are
numbers between 1 and 255. The maximum number of horizontal
tab stops allowed is 32 in Standard mode and 64 in IBM mode. The
tab stops must be specified in ascending order, any violation of
ascending order terminates the tab stop list. Standard termination is
by the <O> control code. To clear all tab stops, specify <ES0 “D”
co>.

Set horizontal tab stops every n columns

Mode ASCII

cESC> “e” “0” n

std. .

<ESC> “err CO> n 27 101 0 n

Cancels all current horizontal tab stops and sets new tab stops every
n columns, where n is between 1 and 127.

Decimal

27 101 48 n

Hexadecimal

1B 65 30 n
lB6500 n

Reset all tab stops

Mode

IBM

ASCII

<ESC> “R” 27 82 1B 52

Decimal

Hexadecimal

Resets the horizontal tab stops to their power-up values in which a
tab stop is set every 8 column starting at column 9. Also clears all
vertical tab stops.

Horizontal tab

Mode

Both

ASCII

<I-IT>

Moves the print position to the next horizontal tab stop. Ignored if
there is no next horizontal tab stop in the current line. Note that when
underlining is selected, spaces skipped by horizontal tabulation are
not underlined.

Decimal

9 09

Hexadecimal

65

Relative horizontal tab

Mode ASCII

Std. cESC> ‘T’ nl n2

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 92 nl n.2

Moves the print position right or left a specified distance (maximum

8 inches). Ignored if the resulting position is beyond the right or left

margin. The formulas for the distance and direction are as follows:

If n2 is between 0 and 63, the print head moves right by (nl + n2 x

256)/120 inches.
If you want to move the print head to the left, nl and n2 are obtained
by subtracting the value from 65536, and dividing the result into
high and low bytes.

Absolute horizontal tab in inches

Mode

1 ASCII

Std.

1 <ESC> ‘3”

nl n2

Decimal

27 36 nl

d 1B 24 nl n2

Sets the next print position to (nl + n2 x 256)/60 inches from the left
margin on the current line. Ignored if this position is beyond the
right margin. The maximum position is 8 inches.

Absolute horizontal tab in columns

Mode ASCII

<ESC> “f’

Std.

<ESC> “f’

“0” n

<0> n

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 102

48 n lB6630

27 102

0 n lB6600

IB 5C nl n2

Hexadecimal

n

n

~-

-.

-

-.

-.

66

Moves the next print position to column n from the left margin,
where n is between 0 and 127.

-

Print normal-density 8-bit graphics

Mode

Both

ASCII

<ESC> “K” nl n2 27 75 nl n2

ml m2 . . . ml m2 . . . ml m2 . . .

Decimal Hexadecimal

1B 48 nl n2

prints bit-image graphics at 60 dots per inch horizontally. The
graphic image is 8 dots high and nl + n2 x 256 dots wide. Maximum
width is 8 inches (480 dots). ml, m2, . . . are the dot data, each a l­byte value from 0 to 255 representing 8 vertical dots, with the most

significant bit at the top and the least significant bit at the bottom.

The number of data bytes must be nl + n2 x 256. Dots beyond the

right margin are ignored. At the end of bit-image printing the printer
returns automatically to character mode.

Print double-density 8-bit graphics

Mode

Both

ASCII Decimal

cESC> “L” nl n2 27 76 nl n2

ml d . . .

ml m2 . . . ml m2 . . .

Prints bit-image graphics at 120 dots per inch horizontally (maxi­mum 960 dots wide). See cESC> “K” for other information.

Hexadecimal

1B 4C nl n2

Print double-density, double-speed 8-bit graphics

Mode

Both

ASCII

<ESC> ‘3” nl n2 27 89 nl n2

ml m2 . . .

Decimal Hexadecimal

1B 59 nl n2

ml m2 . . . ml m2 . . .

tints bit-image graphics at 120 dots per inch horizontally (maxi­mum 960 dots wide), skipping every second dot in the horizontal

direction. See cESC> “K” for other information.

67

Print quadruple-density 8-bit graphics

Mode ASCII

Both

cESC> ‘7” nl n2 27 90 nl n2 1B 5A nl n2

ml m2 . . .

Decimal Hexadecimal

ml m2 . . .

Prints bit-image graphics at 240 dots per inch horizontally (maxi­mum 1920 dots wide), skipping every second dot in the horizontal
direction. See <ES0 “K” for other information.

Select graphics mode

Mode ASCII Decimal

cESC> “*” n0 nl

Std.

n2 ml m2 . . . n2 ml m2 . . .

Selects one of eight graphics modes depending on the value of n0
and prints bit-image graphics in this mode. See <ESC> “K” for
information on nl, n2, ml, m2, . . .

n0 Graphics mode

0 Normal-density (60 dots per inch)

1 Double-density
2 Double-density, double-speed (120 dots per inch)
3 Quadruple-density (240 dots per inch)
4 CRT graphics, mode I (80 dots per inch)
5 Plotter graphics (72 dots per inch)
6 CRT graphics, mode II (90 dots per inch)
7 Double-density plotter graphics (144 dots per inch)

27 42 n0 nl 1B 2A n0 nl

ml m2 . . .

Hexadecimal

n2 ml m2 . . .

(120 dots per inch)

Convert graphics density

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Std. cESC> “?,, n m 27 63 n m 1B 3F n m

Converts graphics defined by subsequent cESC> “K”, cESC> “L”,
<ES0 “Y” or <ES0 “Z” commands to a density mode defined by
<ES0 “*“. n is “K”,
converted. m is a code from <O> to c7> indicating one of the modes
of <ES0 “*“.

68

“L”, “Y” or “z”, indicating the mode to be

-

-

._

-

Print O-pin graphics

Mode ASCII

Std.

<ESC> “*” n0 nl 27 94 n0 nl 1B 5E n0 nl

Selects one of eight graphics modes depending on the value of n0
and prints g-pin bit-image graphics in this mode. The graphics
image is 9 dots high and nl + n2 x 256 dots wide. Maximum width
is 8 inches. Dots beyond the right margin are ignores. ml, m2, . . . are

byte pairs representing 9 vertical dots each. In the leftmost position,

the most significant bit of ml is the top dot; the least significant bit
of ml is the second dot from the bottom; the most significant bit of
m2 is the bottom dot; and the other bits of m2 are ignored. Other byte

pairs are similar. The number of data bytes must be 2 x (nl + n2 x

256). At the end of bit-image printing the printer returns automati­cally to character mode.

n2 ml m2 . . .

Decimal

n2 ml m2 . . . n2 ml m2 . . .

Hexadecimal

n0 Graphics mode
0 Normal-density (60 dots per inch)

1 Double-density

(120 dots per inch)
2 Double-density, double-speed (120 dots per inch)
3 Quadruple-density

4 CRT graphics, mode I

5 Plotter graphics
6 CRT graphics, mode II

(240 dots per inch)

(80 dots per inch)

(72 dots per inch)

(90 dots per inch)

7 Double-density plotter graphics (144 dots per inch)

69

DOWNLOAD CHARACTER COMMANDS

Define draft download characters

ASCII

cESC> “&” CO> nl

m0 ml m2

n2

m3 . . . ml1 m3 . . . ml1 m3 . . . ml1

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 38 0 nl IB 26 00 nl

n2mOmlm2 n2mOmlm.2

Defines one or more new draft characters and stores them in RAM
for later use. EDS switch A-2 must be OFF; otherwise RAM is used
as an input buffer, not for downloading characters, and this com­mand is ignored. Draft mode must be selected before this command
is executed.

nZ is the character code of the first character defined and n2 is the

character code of the last character defined. nZ must be equal to or
less than n2. Use of character codes 32 (space) and 127 (delete code)
should be avoided if possible.
Each character is defined by an attribute byte (m0) and 11 data bytes

(ml, m2, . . . . . mll).

The most significant bit of the attribute byte is 1 if the character is
an ascender (positioned entirely above the baseline) or 0 if it is a
descender (descending below the baseline). The attribute byte also
indicates the amount of white space to the left of the character (0 to
7 dots, specified by bits 4 to 6), and the width of the character cell,
including this space (4 to 15 dots, specified by bits 0 to 3). The left
space and cell width attributes are used only in proportional spacing.
Each data byte indicates eight vertical dots, with the MSB being the
top dot and the LSB the bottom dot. These correspond to pins 1 to

8 or 2 to 9 of the print head, depending on whether the character is
an ascender or descender.

For further details, please refer to the Chapter 5.

-

70

Define NLQ download characters

Mode ASCII

cESC> “&I’ CO> nl

Std.

n2

a0 al a2 n2 a0 al a2 d? a0 al a2

ml m2 . . . m69 ml m2 . ..m49 ml m2 . ..m49

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 38 0 nl

Defines one or more new NLQ characters and stores them in RAM
for later use. EDS switch A-2 must be OFF. NLQ mode must be se-

lected before this command is executed. The parameters are differ-

ent from the draft character command. a0 specifies the left space, al
specifies the character width, and a2 specifies the right space.

The dot density is doubled in each direction, so each character

consists of 18 dots vertically and 23 dots horizontally and requires
69 data bytes. Since the vertical definition of the character is 18 dots,
each byte represents a third of vertical definition.

For details, please refer to Chapter 5.

Define draft download characters

Mode

IBM a0

ASCII Decimal

<ESC> “=” nl n2 <Dc4>

al a2 ml a0 al a2 ml

m2 . . . ml1 m2 . . . ml1

27 61 nl n2 20 1B 3D nl n2 14

Defines one or more new draft characters and stores them in RAM
for later use. Draft mode must be selected before this command is
executed. nZ and n2 give the number of bytes of character data that
will follow. a0 is the character code of the first character defined. al
and a2 are attributes bytes. ml to ml 1 are the character data, and are
the same as in <ESC> “W. The attribute byte al indicates whether
the character is an ascender (not using the lowest of the nine vertical
dots) or a descender (not using the highest dot) and whether it has
a downward extension to 12 dots.

18 26 00 nl

Hexadecimal

a0 al a2 ml

m2 . . . ml1

The attribute byte a2 gives proportional-spacing information. Bit 7

is ignored. Bits 4 to 6 specify the offset to the first byte printed (0
to 7), enabling leading spaces in the character to be ignored. Bits 0
to 3 specify the width of the character cell (maximum 11 dots). The
character will be followed by a mandatory blank dot column which
is not included in this width.

Characters defined by this command can be selected by &SC> “I”
4 or <ESC> “I” 5. This command is ignored when EDS switch

A-2 is ON.

71

Define NLQ download characters

.-

ASCII I Decimal

<ESC> “=” nl ?i2 cNAK>

a0 al a2 ml a0 al a2 ml a0 al a2 ml

m2 . . . m46 m2 . . . m46 m2 . ..m46

27 61 nl n2 21 18 3D nl n2 15

1 Hexadecimal I

Defines one or more new NLQ characters and stores them in RAM
for later use. EDS switch A-2 must be OFF. NLQ mode must be
selected before this command is executed. The parameters are the
same as for the draft character command except that the dot density
is doubled in each direction, so each character consists of 16 dots

Copy character set from ROM into RAM

Mode ASCII

Std. cESC> “:” CO> n <o> 2756 0 n 0 lB3A 00 n CXI

Copies the selected character set with n, as shown below, to the

corresponding download character RAM area, overwriting any

download data already present. Ignored when EDS switch A-2 is

ON.

n Character set

0 Courier

1 Sanserif

Decimal Hexadecimal

n Character set

4 script
7 Orator

-

- vertically and 23 dots horizontally and requires 46 data bytes.

Select download character set

Mode ASCII

Std. <Esc>

<ESC> “%‘* cl> 27 37 1 1B 25 01

“W’ “1” 27 37 49 1B 25 31

Selects the download character set. Ignored when EDS switch A-2
is ON.

Shift download character area

Mode ASCII

<ESC> “t” “2” 27 116 50 1B 74 32

Std.

<ESC> “t” <2> 27 116 2 1B 74 02

Shifts the download character area defined between 0 to 127 to the
area between 128

to 255.

72

Decimal

Decimal

Hexadecimal

Hexadecimal

Select draft download character set

Mode

IBM

ASCII

cEsc> “I” “ ”

cESC> "I" <4>

4

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 73 52
27 73 4

1B 49 34
1B 49 04

Selects the download character set and draft quality. Ignored if the
(FONT) button was pressed during power-up or if EDS switch A-2
is ON.

Select draft elite download character set

Mode

IBM .

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<Esc> T “5” 27 73 53 1B 49 35

cEsc> "I" d> 27 73 5 1B 49 05

Selects the download character set, draft quality, and elite pitch (12
cpi). Ignored if the (FONt) button was pressed during power-up or
if EDS switch A-2 is ON.

Select NLQ download character set

Mode

IBM

ASCII

<ESC> “I” “7” 27 73 55 tB 49 37
<ESC> “I” <7> 27 73 7 1B 49 07

Selects the NLQ download character set. Ignored if the (FONt)

button was pressed during power-up or if EDS switch A-2 is ON.

Decimal

Hexadecimal

Select NLQ italic download character set

Mode ASCII

IBM cEsc> “I-’ CSb

Selects the NLQ download character set and prints them with italic
style. Ignored if the (FONT) button was pressed during power-up or
if EDS switch A-2 is ON.

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 73 15 1B 49 OF

Select ROM character set

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ESC>
<ESC>

“%” “0”
‘%” <0>

Decimal

27 37

48 1B 25

27 37

0 1B 25

Stops using the download character set and n9um.s to the built-in
ROM character set. Ignored when EDS switch A-2 is ON.

COLOR SELECTION COMMANDS

select print color

Mode

Both

ASCII

<ESC> ‘I” n

Selects the printing color according to the value of II as shown

below. Ignored if the color ribbon is not installed.

n Color
0 Black

1 Magenta 5 Orange

2 cyan

3 Violet

Decimal

27 114 n

n Color

4 Yellow

6 Green

Select black

Hexadecimal

30
00

Hexadecimal

1B 72 n

--

Mode

‘Bo* ..(,,

ASCII

“(I~ UC” “)”

.‘)v “0" 40 40 67

Decimal

Changes the print color to Black. Ignored if the color ribbon is not

installed.

Select magenta

Mode ASCII Decimal

Both “(”

74

“(” “C” “)” “)” “1” 40 40 67

Changes the print color to Magenta. Ignored if the color ribbon is not
installed.

Hexadecimal

41 41 48 28 28 43

Hexadecimal

41 49 28 28 43

41

29 29 30

29 29 31

Select cyan

Mode ASCII

Both "(" “(,' "C" ")"

Decimal

").' "2" 40 40 67 41 41 50 28 28 43 29 29 32

Hexadecimal

Changes the print color to Cyan. Ignored if the color ribbon is not
installed.

Select violet

Mode ASCII

Both “(,, “(,. “C” “)”

Changes the print color to Violet. Ignored if the color ribbon is not
installed.

Decimal

“)” "3" 40 40 67 41 41 51 28 28 43 29 29 33

Hexadecimal

Sekt yellow

Mode ASCII

Both “(9. “(9. “C” ‘6)”

Changes the print color to Yellow. Ignored if the color riblxm is not
installed.

“)” "4" 40 40 67 41 41 52 28 28 43 29 29 34

Decimal Hexadecimal

Select orange

Mode ASCII

.

Both "(" "(" "C"

")"

")" "5"

Changes the print color to Orange. Ignored if the color ribbon is not

. .

installed.

Decimal Hexadecimal

40 40 67 41 41 53

28 28 43 29 29 35

I . .

L,

Select green

Mode ASCII

Both “(3. “(9. “C” a‘)”

“)” "6" 40 40 67 41 41 54 28 28 43 29 29 36

Changes the print color to Green. Ignored if the color ribbon is not
installed.

L.

Decimal Hexadecimal

75

OTHER PRINTER CONTROL COMMANDS

Set MSB to I

Mode ASCII

Std. <ESC> “>”

Sets the most significant bit of each subsequent byte received to 1,

allowing users with a 7-bit interface to access characters with ASCII

codes greater than 127.

Set MSB to 0

Mode ASCII

<ESC> “=”

Std.

Sets the most significant bit of each subsequent byte received to 0.

Accept MSB as is

Mode

Std.

ASCII

cESC> “P’

Cancels the preceding commands and accepts the most significant
bit as it is sent to the printer.

Delete last character sent

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<DEL>

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 62 1B 3E

Decimal

27 61 1B 3D

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 35 1B 23

Decimal Hexadecimal

127 7F

Hexadecimal

-

Deletes the last character received. Ignored if the last character ­received has already been printed, or if the last character received
was all or part of a command.

Cancel last line

Mode 1 ASCII

1 <CAN> 1 24 1 18

1 Both

Deletes the last line currently present in the print buffer.

76

1 Decimal

_.

1 Hexadecimal

1

Quiet print

Mode

Std.

ASCII

<ESC> 2” “1”

<ESC> ‘Y’ cl>

Selects the quiet print mode, in which the printer prints each line in
two passes to reduce the sound of printing. You can also set the quiet
mode with the control panel button.

Cancel quiet print

Mode

Std.

ASCII

cESC> “so “0”

cESC>

“S” co> 27 115 0

Cancels the quiet print mode, and resumes normal printing.
You can also cancel the quiet mode with the control panel button.

Set printer off-line

Mode ASCII

Std.

IBM

<Dc3>

<ESC> “Q”

<3> 27 81 3

Sets the printer off-line. The printer disregards all subsequent
characters and commands except <DCl>, which returns it to the on­line state. The printer’s ON LINE indicator does not go off.

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 115 49 1B 73 31
27 115 1

Decimal

27 115 48

Decimal

19

1B 73 01

Hexadecimal

1B 73 30
1B 73 00

Hexadecimal

13
1B 51 a3

Set printer on-line

Mode

Both

ASCII

<Da>

Returns the printer to the on-line state, allowing it to receive and
process all subsequent characters and commands. This command is

ignored if the printer was set off-line by pressing the (RETUNE)
button on the control panel.

Decimal

17

Hexadecimal

11

Bell

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Both &EL>

7 07

Sounds a brief beep tone from the printer’s beeper.

Bidirectional printing

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Both <ESC> “u” “0” 27 85 48 1B 55 30

<ESC> "U" <O> 27 85 0 1B 55 00 1

Causes subsequent printing to be done in the normal bidirectional
mode, which is faster than unidirectional printing.

Unidirectional printing

-

Mode ASCII

Both

<ESC> “U” “1” 27 85 49 1B 55 31
<ESC> “U” <l> 27 85 1 1B 55 01

Decimal Hexadecimal

Causes subsequent printing to be done unidirectionally, ensuring
maximum vertical alignment precision.

One-line unidirectional printing

r

Mode

Std.

ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

<ESC> ‘I<” 27 60 1B 3C

Immediately returns the print head to the left margin, then prints the
remainder of the line from left to right. Normal bidirectional -

printing resumes on the next line.

Manual feed

Mode ASCII

~30th

<ESC> <EM> <O>

a(,, a.(.. uo” ..>w a.),, 40 40 48 41 41 28 28 30 29 29

Selects manual sheet feeding even when the optional automatic
sheet feeder is mounted. Ignored if EDS switch A-4 is ON (ASF
inactive).

Decimal

27 25 0 1B 19 00

Hexadecimal

78

Auto feed

Mode ASCII Decimal Hexadecimal

Both

<ESC> <EM> <4>

,.(,, ,a(,,

"4" ")" “)W

27 25 4

40 40 52 41 41

1B 19 04

28 28 34 29 29

Selects the automatic sheet feeder. Ignored if EDS switch A-4 is ON
(ASF inactive).

Eject paper from ASF

Wode ASCII

BO~JI

<ESC> <EM> “R”

,,(w ,a(,,

"R"

“y, “),.

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 25 82

40 40 82 41 41 28 28 52 29 29

Ejects the current page. Ignored if EDS switch A-4 is ON (ASF in­active).

Set print start position on ASF

Mode ASCII

Both

cESC> <EM> ‘T” n

,,(.. ..(,, ‘T"

Skips rJ6 inches at the top of the page, where n is between 1 and 15.
Ignored if EDS switch A-4 is ON (ASF inactive).

..)W ,,)W n

Decimal Hexadecimal

27 25 84 n

40 40 84 41 41 II

Reset printer

Mode

Both <ESC> “@” 27 64

ASCII

Reinitializes the printer. Clears the print buffer and returns settings
to their power-up values. Does not clear the input buffer or change
ASF selections.

Decimal

1B 19 52

1B 19 54 n

28 28 54 29 29 n

Hexadecimal

1B 40

MEMO

-.

-

chapter 5

DOWNLOAD CHARACTERS

With this printer you can create new characters and symbols, download their
dot data, and have them printed in place of selected characters in the regu­lar character set. Characters that can be generated in this way range from
simple but useful symbols like the check mark through complex Chinese or
Japanese characters.

Regular characters are permanently stored in the printer’s ROM, but

characters you design are downloaded and stored in RAM for use.

DESIGNING YOUR OWN DRAFT CHARACTERS

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

l The matrix or grid on which you design the characters is 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 5-l.

FIgurn 5-1. Clots can be inside boxes or straddle the vertical lines of the grid

81

l The minimum width of a character is five dots.
l The 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 in the ASCII table.

Photocopy the grid in Figure 5-2 to help design yournew characters. We

will

use a tiny representation of a car-shaped symbol for our example.

ml m3 n15 m7 mY ml1

m2 m4 m6 mRm10

128

64

32

16

8

4

Figum 5-Z. Use this grid (or one similar to it) to define your own draft characters

ASCII Code:
Descender:
Left space:
Last column:

mO = Descender x 128

+ (Left x 16)

+ Last

Defining the attribute data

Before you start the definition, you will need to decide exactly where in the
regularASCI1 set you want to place your characters. After downloading, you
access your new character by sending the code for the character you
replaced.

Next you must choose whether to make the car symbol an ascender or a
descender. This determines how the character is seated on the line:

A s c e n d e r : f:‘-::;; 1:::

Descender : i:‘:;:;.>Fi:5:

We decided that our car symbol will not be a “descender”, 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, you must specify the left space and the last print column of the
character.
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.
Acceptable values for the left space are 0 to 7, and the last print column are
from4 to 11.
Our character will occupy from column 1 to column 11, so the left space is
0 and the character width data is 11.

Assigning the character data

Now, we calculate the vertical numerical values of the columns of dots, and
enter them underneath the grid. For example, looking at Figure 5-3, we see
that in theleft-most column there are five dots, and they are sitting in the “64”
box, “32”box, “16”box, “8”box, and “4”box. Thus its vertical value is 124.
In the next column, there is no dot straddling the vertical line; its value is
recorded as 0.

ml 1713 m5 m7 m9 m/I

m2 m4 m6 mNm10

ASCII Code:

Descender: I

Left space: 0
Last column: ?I

mU = Descender x I28

+ (Left x 16)
+ Last

1.74 66 64 76 76 0
0 4 36 2 7.2

I

Figure 5-3. Add the values of the dots in each column and write the sum of each column at the bottom

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.

83

Sample program

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

1000 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xO";
1010 LPRINT CHR$(27);"&";CHR$(OJ;
1020 LPRINT CHR$(60);CHR$(62);
1030 FOR N=60 TO 62
1040 FOR M=O TO 11
1050 READ MM
1060 LPRINT CHR$(MM);
1070 NEXT M
1080 NEXT N
1090 LPRINT
1100 DATA 139, 2, 5, 8,241. 0
2110 DATA 0,241, 8, 5, 2, 0
1120 DATA 139,124, 0, 66, 4, 64
1130 DATA 36, 16. 2. 16, 12, 0

1140 DATA 139, 46, 16, 2, 60, 0
1150 DATA 48, 0, 48, 0, 48, 0
1160 LPRINT CHR$(27);"D";CHR$(ll);CHR$(O);
1170 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(l);
1180 LPRINT ( U.S. EXPORTS"
1190 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);
1200 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%";CHR$fl);
1210 LPRINT "AUTOS";CHR$(9);

1220 FOR I=.4 TO 9.3 STEP .4
1230 LPRINT CHR$(61);

1240 NEXT I
1250 LPRINT

1260 LPRINT "CHEMICALS";CHR$(S);
1270 FOR I=.4 TO 8.7 STEP .4
1280 LPRINT CHR$(GO);
1290 NEXT I

1300 LPRINT
1310 LPRINT "GUNS";CHR$(9);

1320 FOR I=.4 TO 1.4 STEP .4

1330 LPRINT CHR$(62);

1340 NEXT I

1350 LPRINT

84

1360 LPRINT CHR$(9);"+--";
1370 SCALE$="--+--'I
1380 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
1390 LPRINT SCALE$;
1400 NEXT I
1410 LPRINT 'I--+"
1420 LPRINT CHR$(9);" ";
1430 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
1440 LPRINT u

";I;
1450 NEXT I
1460 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%";CHR$(O)

1470 LPRINT CHR$(27);"S";CHR$(O)
1480 LPRINT CHR$(9);"MILLIONS OF
1490 LPRINT CHR$(27);"T"
1500 END

'DOLLARS"

85

DEFINING YOUR OWN NLQ CHARACTERS

As you 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.
Additionally, the print head speed is halved, and the dots are printed at
double the density of draft characters. For this reason, NLQ characters can
contain up to 23 dots in the horizontal direction.

-

Fundamentally, the process to define and print downloaded NLQ character
is the same as for draft characters, except that you must assign the charac­ter data according to the emulation mode, you are using.

Assigning the character data with the Standard

mode

There are differences in the way the attribute information is processed.

In the draft quality mode the attribute byte carries the descender data, and
specifies the left space and the character width. In the NLQ mode, tber are

128

128

128

Data:

64
32

16

8
4
2

1

64
32

16

8
4
2

I I I I I, / I, I I, I 1 I I I I I

64

I I II III Ill II I III III/

ASCII Code
Left space:
Character width:
Right space:

-

-

Figure 5-4. Use this grid (or one similar to it) to define your own NLQ characters with the Standard mode

86

three attribute bytes, the first byte describes the character’s left space, the
second byte describes the character width. And the third byte describes the
right space. Appropriate allocation of data in these three bytes lets you place
the character where you like within the grid.

Use the grid in Figure 5-4 to help plot the data. The vertical definition of the
character is 18 dots. Each byte therefore represents a third of the vertical
definition. That’s where the numbers down the left side of the grid come in.
Notice that there is a number for each row of dots and that each number is
twice the number below it. By making these numbers of two we can take any
combination of dots in a vertical column and assign them a unique value.

If we plot our car-shaped symbol for NLQ, the grid data will look like Figure
5-5.
The defining process is the same as for draft characters, except that you must

select NLQ mode, and you must define 69 data. If you wish to print your
NLQ characters with the regular character set, the remarks regarding the si­multaneous use of regular and download characters in the draft character

section apply equally to NLQ characters.

128

64
32
16

8
4
2

128

64
32
16

8
4
2

128

/ / ’ ” ” “1

64

I’ll1 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I

Data:

I 8 32 32

6 76 0 0 0 0 8 2 0 0 0

248 124 124 724 248 0 0 0 730 f30 728

0 2 2 0 0 PO 120 724 124 ?24 120

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Figure 5-5. Add the values of the dots into three bytes

63 32 16 4

1 0 0

ASCII Code

Left space:

Character width:

Right space: 0

0

0

0

61

0

23

The following program demonstrates how to use the NLQ download

characters with the Standard mode:

1000 LPRINT CHR$(27);"xl"
1010 LPRINT CHR$(27);"&";CHR$(O);
1020 LPRINT CHR$(60);CHR$(62);

1030 FOR N=60 TO 62

1040 LPRINT CHR$(O);CHR$(23);CHR$(O);
1050 FOR M=l TO 69
1060 READ MM
1070 LPRINT CHR$(MM);
1080 NEXT M
1090 NEXT N
1100 LPRINT
1110 LPRINT CHR$(27);"D";CHR$(ll);CHR$tO);
1120 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(l);
1130 LPRINT u U.S. EXPORTS"
1140 LPRINT CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);
1150 LPRINT CHR$(27);"%";CHR$(l);
1160 LPRINT "AUTOS";CHR$(9);
1170 FOR I=.4 TO 9.3 STEP .4
1180 LPRINT CHR$(61);
1190 NEXT I
1200 LPRINT
1210 LPRINT "CHEMICALS";CHR$(9);
1220 FOR I=. 4 TO 8.7 STEP .4
1230 LPRINT CHR$(60);
1240 NEXT I
1250 LPRINT
1260 LPRINT "GUNS";CHR$(9);
1270 FOR I=.4 TO 1.4 STEP .4
1280 LPRINT CHR$(62);
1290 NEXT I
1300 LPRINT
1310 LPRINT CHR$/9);"+--'I:
1320 SCALE$="--+--'I
1330 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
1340 LPRINT SCALE$;
1350 NEXT I
1360 LPRINT "--+"
1370 LPRINT CHR$(9);" ";
1380 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
1390 LPRINT u ";I;

-

-

88

1400
1410
1420
1430 LPRINT CHR$(9);
1440
1450
1500
1510
1520
1530
1540
1550 DATA 63,128, 0, 0, 64,128, 0, 32, 0

1560
1570

1580 DATA
1590

1600
1610 DATA

1620 DATA 16, 0. 0. 8,120. 0. 4, 0, 0
1630 DATA
1640 DATA

1650 DATA 0,120, 0, 0. 0, 0
1660 DATA

1670
1680 DATA
1690 DATA
1700 DATA
1710 DATA 0, 96, 0, 4,128, 0, 0, 0. 0
1720 DATA
1730

NEXT I
LPRINT

LPRINT

LPRINT
END
DATA
DATA
DATA 0, 64,128, 63,128. 0,
DATA
DATA 0, 0,128, 0, 0, 0,

DATA
DATA

DATA
DATA

DATA

DATA

CHR$(27);"%";CHR$(O)
CHR$(27);"S";CHR$(O);

"MILLIONS OF DOLLARS"

CHR$(27);"T"

0, 0, 0, 0, 0. 0.

0, 9, 0, 0. 16.128.

0. 0, 0. 0, 0,128,

0, 16,128, 0. 9. 0.

0. 0. 0, 0. 0, 0
1,248, 0, 6, 0. 0. 8,124, 0

16. 2, 0, 32,124. 0.

32,124, 0, 0. 0. 0,

0, 0. 0, 32, 0, 0, 0,120, 0

2,124, 0, 1,130, 0. 0,124, 0
0,130, 0. 0,124, 0. 0,128, 0

0, 0, 0. 2,208, 0. 5, 40, 0

10,215,128, 5, 40. 0. 10,215,128

5, 40, 0, 0, 87,128, 4,128, 0

0, 4, 0, 4,144, 0, 0,100, 0

4,128, 0, 0, 8, 0, 4,144, 0

4,128, 0, 8, 0. 0. 4,128, 0
0, 0, 0. 7,128, 0

0, 6. 0

0. 32. 0

0. 0,128
0, 0. 0
0, 0,128

0. 6, 0

0, 2. 0

63,248, 0

U.S. EXPORTS

89

Assigning the character data with the IBM mode

Fundamentally, the process to define and print downloaded NLQ character
with the IBM mode is the same as for draft characters, except that you must
supply about four times as much character data, and you must design the
character with the two passes of the print head in mind.

Use the grid in Figure 5-6 to help plot the data with the IBM mode. Due to
the two-pass process, NLQ characters can contain up to 16 dots vertically.

First

128

64

32

16

8

4

2

1 Dot data

1st:

2nd:

Figure 5-6. Use this grid (or one similar to it) to define your own NLQ characters with the IBM mode

. ..m45 Second
. ..m4h pass

128 ASCII Code

Descender

64 Lefi space:

Width:

32 ul = Descender x 128

a? = (Left x 16) + Width

16

To make the character data easier to calculate, put the first pass dots with

black circle on the grid when you are designing your characters, and the

second pass dots with white circle. Remember 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 plot our car-shaped symbol for NLQ, the grid data will look like Figure
5-7.

The defining process is the same as for draft characters, except that you must

select NLQ mode, and you must define 46 data. If you wish to print your

First tul...
“ASS ,I,)

_

128

64

32

101 I I

l-1 I I

Ifi I I

Dot data

1st: 74 38 70 70 726

2nd: 28 14

32 64 0

&urn 67. Add the values of the dots in the boxes first, and then add the value on the lines

I I I lOI I I I I lOI

I I I l-1

16 I I 0 0

14 74

724 0

0 0

I I I l-1 I I I I I I a2 = (Left x 16) + Width

0

70

64

f.?

I I I I I ! I

0 0 9 9 8 0

3d 22 6 6 6

32 16

72’ 74

0 0 0

74 74 72

. ..m45 Second

m*h pass

,28 ASCII Code

Descender

64 Left space:

Width:

32 01 = Descender

16

8

4
2

1

x 128

., ..-

23

61

7

0

NLQ characters with the regular character set, the remarks’regarding the

simultaneous use of regular and download characters in the draft character
section apply equally to NLQ characters.

The following program demonstrates how to use the NLQ download
characters with the IBM mode:

1000 LPRINT CHR$(27);"I";CHR$(7);
1010 LPRINT CHR$(27);"=";CHR$(l46);CHR$(O);CHR$(21);
1020 LPRINT CHR$(60);
1030 FOR N=60 TO 62
1040 LPRINT CHR$(128):CHR$(23);
1050 FOR M=l TO 46
1060 READ MM
1070 LPRINT CHR$(MM);
1080 NEXT M
1090 NEXT N
1100 LPRINT
1110 LPRINT CHR$(27);"D";CHR$(ll);CHR$(O);
1120 LPRINT CHR$(27);"[@";CHR$(4);CHR$(O);
1130 LPRINT CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(34);CHR$(2);
1140 LPRINT - U.S. EXPORTS"
1150 LPRINT CHR$(27);"C@";CHR$(4);CHR$(O);
1160 LPRINT CHR$(O);CHR$(O);CHR$(l71;CHR$(l);
1170 LPRINT CHR$(27);"I":CHR$(7);

c

1180 LPRINT "AUTOS";CHR$(9);
1190 FOR I=.4 TO 9.3 STEP .4
1200 LPRINT CHR$(61);
1210 NEXT I
1220 LPRINT
1230 LPRINT "CHEMICALS";CHR$(9);
1240 FOR I=.4 TO 8.7 STEP .4
1250 LPRINT CHR$(60);
1260 NEXT I
1270 LPRINT
1280 LPRINT "GUNS";CHR$(9);
1290 FOR I=.4 TO 1.4 STEP .4
1300 LPRINT CHR$(62);
1310 NEXT I
1320 LPRINT

1330 LPRINT CHR$(9) ;"+--";

1340 SCALE$="--+--I'
1350 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
1360 LPRINT SCALE$;
1370 NEXT I
1380 LPRINT "--+"
1390 LPRINT CHR$(9);" 'I;
1400 FOR I=2 TO 8 STEP 2
1410 LPRINT "

";I;
1420 NEXT I
1430 LPRINT CHR$(27);"I";CHR$(2)
1440 LPRINT CHR$(27);"S";CHR$(O)i
1450 LPRINT CHR$(9);"MILLIONS OF DOLLARS"
1460 LPRINT CHR$(27):"T"
1470 END
1500 DATA 0. 0, 0. 0, 2, 4, 4. 2.
1510 DATA 8, 0, 1. 16,240,224, 1. 0.
1520 DATA 1, 0, 0, 0. 1, 0, 0. 0.
1530 DATA 240,224, 1. 16. 8. 0. 1, 8.
1540 DATA 2. 4. 0, 0. 0. 0
1550 DATA 14, 28, 16, 32. 38. 14. 1. 64.
1560

DATA 1, 0, 70. 14, 0. 0.126.124,

1570 DATA 0. 0, 70, 12, 0, 64. 38, 12.
1580

DATA 22, 14, 9. 16. 6, 14, 9. 0.
1590 DATA 8. 0, 6. 12. 0. 0
1600 DATA 0, 0, 24. 32, 7, 16. 56. 14.

1610

DATA 56, 14. 7, 48, 8. 14. 2. 32.

1620

DATA 6. 32, 8. 0. 2, 40, 8. 0.

1630

DATA 8. 0, 0, 40. 8. 0. 0, 32,

1640 DATA 8, 32, 0, 0, 24, 48

-

-

-

1. 8
0, 0
1, 0
4, 2

70, 14

0. 0
0, 32
6, 14

1, 48
8, 0

4. 36

32, 0

92