When you print the letter "A," the host computer sends a code corresponding to "A" (hexadecimal 41 is an example of this) to the machine. This code is referred to as the character code. The machine stores an internal representation of each character, and selects from among these character patterns the pattern corresponding to the received code. In this case, the machine searches for the pattern for "A," and prints it.
■The process by which letters are printed7
Appendix
Computer | Machine | Character |
|
| Patterns |
The machine uses a fixed rule to decide which letter or symbol corresponds to the character code sent from the host computer. For example, the letter "A" is printed for the hexadecimal code "41." The rule which determines the correspondence between character codes and printed letters is called the "symbol set."
Fonts and Scalable Fonts
There are two types of fonts available, and these fonts are distinguished by the type of data from which they are formed.
•Bitmapped fonts•Scalable fontsBitmapped FontsEach character of bitmapped fonts are composed of a grid of small dots and stored in the machine's memory in dot matrix format.