Chapter 6

Special Printing Features

In this chapter you’ll discover several new features that will enhance your control over the printer. Backspacing, for example, allows you to combine characters. You can use a set of software commands to switch in and out of international character sets, and you can control the speed of printing.

Backspace

The backspace function is handy for making overstrikes. Because it moves the print head backward one character, you can print two characters in one print position. You can also shift the print head slightly to print offsets. You activate backspace by typing a CHR$(8) between the two characters.

Overstrikes

Typically, backspace is used for single-character overstrikes. Here are a few examples that create some useful mathematical symbols:

NEW

10 LPRINT "=" CHR$(8) “/” ' Not-equal

For the not-equal symbol,‘ the backspace moves the print head back over the equal sign so that the slash can be printed on top of it. You can

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