Font attributes:a preview
Orientation(portraitor landscapeas describedearlier)is usuallythoughtof as one attributeof a font; it’s not really a page formattingissue. Besides orientation,the fonts with whichyou print have these attributes:
Symbolset is sometimescalled“characterset”- whichcan be confusing, sincesomepeoplesay “characterset”whenthey mean a font. Symbolsets are subgroupsof a font’s symbolsthat are most appropriatefor particular countries,such as the UK (f), France(h),Latin America(fl)or Japan @).
Spacingandpitch are linked.Characterscan be spacedon the linepropor- tionally,so a narrowletter such as i takesless room than a wideletterlike
W.Orcharactm canbe spacedallthe samewidth:twelvecharactersto the inch is the monospacedspacingcalled 12pitch.
Pointsize defineshowbigcharacterswillprint, suchas IOor 12pointshigh.
Sryledefineswhethercharactersprint in uprightor italicstyle.
Strokeweightdefineshow bold a typefaceprints.
Finally, typt$aceitself means the artisticdesign of a font. Your printer’s internaltypefacesinclude,LinePrinterand Courier. With the Star Laser- Printer 4 you can also use Helvet, Gothic, Script, Caslon, Orator and hundredsmom typefaces,whichyouload intothe printerfrom cartridgeor computerdisk.
Whenyou enablefont setupparameterson the controlpanel,it meansyou startoff with particularfontattributesas defaultswhenyou first choosean
2.5THE STARLASERPRINTER4 SUPERSET
2.5.1Do you need to send commands?
Here’s an important fact: you can set nearly every one of the above parametemby sending your printer a correspondingEscape sequence command.ThoseEscapesequencecommandswilloverrideanysettingyou makefrom the controlpanel.
The mainthingto realizeaboutmostprintercommands,though,is that you probablydon’t need to use them. Nearly all popular softwarepackages
26
