PREFACE About this manual
This Star LaserPrinter 8111 Applications Manual gives you the information
you need to program the Star Micronics LaserPrinter 8111.
Why would you read this book? Most people using a laser printer just run
software packages with built-inprinter drivers. which look after everything
their computers send their printers. But many of us- small business people
and home computer users, not to mention the wizards who write those
software packages- want to benefit from all the new features offered by our
printers.
Do you want complete control over the characters and images you print? Do
you want to make your Star LaserPrinter 8111 work like some earlier kind of
printer? This manual provides the software help you need to get the most
from your LaserPrinter 8111.
Though this Applications Manual is really intended for intermediate to
advanced computer users, we’ve tried to accommodate relative novices too.
The information is organized so you can walk through the general theory
underlying printer programming before dancing into specific details. It
makes sense, therefore, to mad the first three chapters before jumping into the
middle.
There’s a good reason to read each chapter from its start too. People learning
how to use a new printer often find the terminology a barrier. So instead of
burying what may be new jargon in a Glossary at the back, we define each
new term the first time it appears. The whole first part of the chapter on fonts,
for example, defmes different aspects of afont (a collection of characters of
the same size and style).