Star Micronics 4 manual Most significantbit, Spacing

I

5.5.5 Most significantbit

Veryfew computemstill sendjust sevenbits to their printers,the way the AppleII+ and TRS-80did. But if you find yourselfin this situationall is notlost.Youcan stillgainaccessto the symbolsin theupperhalfof the FX- 850symbolset (eitheritalicsor charactergraphics)withthefollowingthree commands.

These commandscontrolthe stateof the eighthbit, the high-orderor most signijlcanfbit, which is the leftmost bit in a binary string. None of the commandswill affectdata sent as graphics.

To maketheeighthbitalwayson (l), whichletsyouprintitalicsor character graphics,send this command:

<ESC>>

To keep the eighth bit alwaysoff (0), so you can only print the ordinary ASCII charactersin the lowerhalf of the symbolset, sendthis:

<ESC>=

To let your computerprogramcontrolthe eighthbit, send this command:

<ESC>#

5.5.6 Spacing

When you combineproportionalspacingwith automaticjustificationyou get text that looks like that in professionallytypesetbooks. Proportional spacingalso looksgood withoutjustification.

Acouple of notes though:The proportionalspacing command can not change a monospaced-pitchfont into a proportionallyspaced one. You shouldalwayshaveaproportionallyspacedfontselectedwhenyousendthis command.Also, you can’t condenseproportionallyspacedtext.

To turn proportionalprintingon or off, send this command:

<ESC>p n

in whichif n is an evennumbersuchas 2 or 4 yougetproportionalprinting, andif nis anoddnumbersuchas 1or 3yougetthelast-selectedmonospaced pitch.

107