These increments reflect the history of twentieth century printing. Pitch, referring to the number of characters printed in each horizontal inch, derives from how typewriters space their characters. Lines and columns were first used by earlier computer printers (on which they are called horizontal and vertical motion indexes). You already know about the Star LaserPrinter 4111 being able to print 300dots to the inch. And the unit by which typesetters have measured text for centuries is the point, about l/72nd of an inch.
One hint about moving the print position: you can confuse yourself if you use more than one or two different units during the same session. So decide beforehand how accurately you need to move the print position (not forget- ting any graphics you want to include). Then stick to the unit(s) you choose.
The commands that move the print position in all these ways are described in chapter 4.
2.4CONTROLLING THE PRINTING
The CHARACTER parameter defines font attributes and setup values (if any) for the Star LaserPrinter 4111.
A font attributes or characteristics determine what that font will look like when it is printed. The next chapter, “Fonts”, explores the details of all font attributes in more detail. But let’s have a quick overview now, because you’ll meet these terms on the control panel program menu.
Font attributes: a preview
Orientation (portrait or landscape as described earlier) is usually thought of as one attribute of a font; it’s not really a page formatting issue. Besides orientation, the fonts with which you print have these attributes:
Symbol ser is sometimes called “character set” — which can be confusing, since some people say “character set” when they mean a font. Symbol sets are subgroups of a font’s symbols that are most appropriate for particular countries, such as the UK (f), France (a), Latin America (ii) or Japan (Y).
Spacing and pitch are linked. Characters can be spaced on the line propor- tionally, so a narrow letter such as i takes less room than a wide letter like W, Or characters can be spaced all the same width: twelve characters to the inch is the monospaced spacing called 12 pitch.
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