Star Micronics NP-IO manual Eighth bit controls

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H The seven bit dilemma

Some computers (not the IBM-PC fortunately!) don’t have the capability to send eight bits on their parallel interface, but can only send seven bits. This would make it impossible for these computers to use this printer’s block graphics characters and special symbols if our engineers hadn’t thought of a solution.

(All of these characters have ASCII codes greater than 127 which means that the eighth bit must be on to use them.) The solution lies in the three control codes given in the following table:

Table 5-3

Eighth bit controls

~1

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

nBlock graphics characters and special symbols

Besides the upper and lower case letters and symbols that we are by now familiar with, your printer has a whole different set of characters that are for special uses. These characters include block graphics for drawing forms and graphs, and special sym- bols for mathematical, engineering and professional uses. The special characters are included in two character sets.. The character set you normally use with IBM mode is called character set #l. The special characters are printed out when you send ASCII codes 160-255 to the printer.

Your printer also offers character set #2 which is almost the same as character set #l except for the addition of ASCII codes

3--6,20,21,26, and 128-159. Character set #2 is selected with (ESC)“G”; to go back to character set #l, use (ESC“7”.

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

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Contents NP-IO Self Declaration Table of Contents BIG Caring for Your Printer Functions of the Connector Signals Setting UP Your Printer Page Remove the protective tube from the carriage rail Page ‘.igure Memo Getting to Know Your Printer Pow\er cord Control panel Forward Selecting and Loading Paper Release lever To align paper that is not in straight Release lever Open the sprocket covers to expose the sprocket teeth Adjusting the Print Head Show you Printer When Want to Long Function Connecting the Printer Printing with Basic List Page Ascii Page Some Special Kinds of Text ESC Italic on Try this program to see them work Pica ESC P Elite Escm When you run this program you should get this Lprint Condensed CondensedON Here’s what you should get from this program Making Words Stand OUT Boldface on =49 Summary notes Formatting Text Line feed commands This is what you will get Run the program again. Now the results will look like this Set line spacing Inch Esco Set line snacing Lprint Line Number Form feed Lprint CHR$ ESC Top and bottom margin commands Function Control code Lprint this is LINE1 Next Page Try setting the margins with this program Here’s what you should get To begin Try this program to see how this works Lprint CHR$27xO 110 END Relative Horizontal Tab Lprint CHR$27BCHR$lOCHR$l5 Lprint CHR$25CHR$30CHR$o Lprint CHR$llFIFTH TAB CHR$n When you run this program the printout should look like this When you run this program, you should get like this Memo Special Features Printer Lprint CHR$7 Master rest Lprint Backspace does not Lprint CHRS27il Added Spaces This Lprint Next Lprint Lprint Eighth bit controls Next J Page Lprint CHR$27 Lprint CHR$27= Lieltil~l When you refer the Appendix C, you’ll find many characters When you run this program you should get like this Big character commands Function Lprint Double CHR$SO Lprint Testing Abcd ~~III.II I I,I~I~II L 1-t40 Memo Download Characters DOT Graphics Pins prints a row of dots Vertical 241 P r ESC 8~ CHR$O nl n2 m0 ml m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8 m9 ml0 ml1 Page Lprint U.S. Exports Lprint Scales Designing Your OWN NLQ Characters Page Lprint Lprint CHEMICALSCHR$9 Lprint CHR$9i--I SCALE$=--+-I For I=2 to 8 Step Calculating Nl and n2 Umber of col- 1 Then nl is N2 is 11m2 More graphics commands Printer needs 2 bytes to fire all 9 pins in the g-pin