(2) Character and line spacing

 

 

 

 

 

Line spacing means the pitch from the top of dots

that form

a character

on a

line to the top of dots on the next line.

 

 

 

 

 

It is absolutely necessary to separate characters vertically for

ease

in

reading

each sentence. Most typewriters and printers have

a switch or

lever

to

change

the line spacing (1/6” or 1/8”). The MX-80 Type II also can do this by DIP

switch setting, of course. In addition, you can set

it programmably

with

some

ESC codes with a range from 1/72” to 85/72”.

 

 

 

 

 

See what happens when you set the line spacing to 1/8” and 1/6”.

 

 

 

Look at the following figures, (a) and (b). The line

spacing, i.e. the

pitch

from

the top of upper “g” or “G” character to the top of the “g” or “G” on the next line is 1/8”. That corresponds to 9-dot skipping. If you type a “g” on the first line and a “G” on the next line, the 2 characters will be close to each other. This is a little bit hard to read in a long message including upper case characters and lower case ones. In other uses, however, this line spacing is effective. You can understand its effectiveness when using the bit image mode.

On the other hand, with 1/6” line spacing, there is no problem even if upper case characters and lower case ones are mixed in a message. In this case, a minimum of 1/24” line spacing is created between characters vertically. If you want greater line spacing or less, input the ESC A control code.

2. Definitions of Some Terms Often Used

Before looking at the printer in detail, some terms should be defined first so that you can understand them more easily and in less time.

They are:

•ASCII code

•Escape codes

•“+” symbol

•2, D and H

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