just over 17 characters per inch. The smaller characters allow for spreadsheets, or other work that requires compact printing, to be squeezed on an 8½-inch page.

In Figure 5-3, you can see the difference in the two pitches. Pica is the default, the pitch in effect when the printer is turned on.

P i c a

1 inch

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b

 

C o m p r e s s e d

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv

Figure 5-3. Comparison between print pitches

Pitch Mode Combinations

Expanded is a print mode that can be used with either Pica or Compressed print pitches. You can add this mode to your program to printout for one line only or for longer passages. Expanded can also be used with most of the other modes.

Expanded mode

Expanded mode doubles the width of the current pitch mode. It does this by printing twice as many dots, twice as wide, as you can see in Figure 5-4.

Pica A

Expanded A

 

 

Figure 5-4. Pica and Expanded letters

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