85
CGlossary
A
A to D Analog to Digital
ACIA Asynchronous Communication Interface Adapter
ACK Acknowledge character. A transmission control
character transmitted by the printer as an affirmative
response to an inquiry from the host.
active column The horizontal location on the paper where the next
character will print.
active line The vertical location on the paper where the next
character will print.
active position The position on the paper where the next character
will print. The intersection of the active column and
the active line.
ASCII American Standard Code fo r Information
Interchange. A standard character encoding scheme
introduced in 1963 and used widely on many
computers and printers. It is a 7-bit code with 128
different bit patterns. There is no parity
recommendation.
attributes, print Operations performed on text that alter its
appearance but do not change the font. Examples:
underlining, superscripting, bold, etc.
B
bar code A printed code consisting of parallel bars of varied
width and spacing and designed to be read by a one-
dimensional scanning device.
baud A unit of speed that measures the rate at which
information is transferred. Baud rate is the reciprocal
of the duration in seconds of the shortest pulse used
to carry data. For example, a system in which the
shortest pulse is 1/1200 second operates at 1200
baud. On RS-232 serial lines, the baud rate equals
the data flow rate in bits per second (bps). To