Glossary
Pitch
Characters per horizontal inch (cpi).
Platen
A hard rubber cylinder that moves paper forward during printing.
Printing Test
A test that determines whether the printer is working correctly. Test pages are printed to show print quality and verify whether all characters print. The printing test only tests the printer. It does not test how the computer works with the printer.
Proportional Spacing
Character spacing in which wide characters occupy more space than do narrow characters. For example, characters such as “W” or “M” occupy more horizontal space than do characters such as “i” or “l.” Many soft fonts are proportionally spaced. Sometimes designated PS, proportional spacing is the opposite of monospacing.
Protocol
A set of instructions that control how data is transmitted between devices such as a computer and a printer. This printer has three resident protocols: DEC PPL2 (native command set), IBM proprinter X24E, and Epson ESC/P2.
Rear Feed
In rear feed, paper is fed from the rear of the printer. The forms tractor unit must be installed at the rear of the printer. The forms tractor unit pushes paper into the printer.
Resident Fonts
Fonts present (resident) in the printer’s permanent memory. For this printer, the resident fonts are Courier 10, Prestige Elite 12, Pica 10,
Serial Interface
A standard computer interface. Information is transferred between devices over a single wire (although other wires are used for control). A long cable is often necessary in networking environments, where the printer may be shared. With the
Set-Up Mode
One of the printer’s two operating modes. In the
Shadow Printing
Shadow printing prints characters twice for emphasis. Characters printed the second time are shifted slightly to the right.
