Operator's Guide |
PAGE. The area of paper defined between horizontal perforations.
PARALLEL INTERFACE. Physical and logical connection between devices where data are transmitted an entire character at a time.
PARITY. The value of the parity bit in each character transmitted. Parity checking ensures accurate data transmission.
PITCH. A measure of the number of characters printed per horizontal inch of paper. Pitch can be set using the configuration menu or with control commands. (Also, in the DEC LA210 emulation, "vertical pitch" is a term that refers to the number of lines per in.)
PLATEN. The hard surface behind the paper that allows the printhead pins and ribbon to cause an impression on the paper.
PRINTABLE CHARACTER. A printable dot pattern: letters, numbers, punctuation marks, graphic shapes, and all other symbols that can be printed as a unit within a single cell.
PRINTER EMULATION. When a printer is set to respond to the commands of another brand of printer, it is said to emulate that printer. The printer can be set to emulate the Epson
PRINTHEAD. One of three devices, each containing nine vertically aligned pins, that cause
PRINTHEAD GAP. The distance between the printheads and the platen.
PROTOCOL. Same as HANDSHAKING.
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORY (RAM). This is the printer's memory which stores downloaded character and control data, and incoming print jobs. The printer contains a 32K x 8 bit volatile RAM. Volatile RAM loses its character and control data when printer power is turned off. [The microprocessor contains nonvolatile RAM (NVRAM) to retain configuration default settings during periods when the printer is off.]
