Star Micronics 8 Series manual Do you need to send commands?, Star LaserPrinter8 superset

THE STAR LASERPRINTER 8 SUPERSET

Do you need to send commands?

Here’s an important fact: you can set nearly every one of the above pararnctcrs by sending your printer a correspondingEscape sequence command.ThoseEscapesequencecommandswilloverrideanysettingyou make from the front panel.

The mainthingto realizeaboutmostprintercommands,though,is thatyou probablydon’t need to use them. Nearly all popular software packages includeprinterdrivers,which send commandsto the printer so you don’t haveto typethemyourself.Someof thoseprogramsask you to key in set- up paramctcn about your printer. Other programs let you put printer commandsbeforeor insidethe documentyou want to print.

Butmaybethesoftwareyouusedoesn’thaveprinterdriversfor anyprinter yourStar LaserPnntcr8 emulates:Youstillmightnothaveto writepnntcr commandsyourself.

Severalcompaniessell programsthat look after laser-printingcommands for such software. Ask your dealer about LaserControl, Printworks for Lasers, PCLPak andRAM Resident Printmerge. There’snotmuchpointin reinventingthe wheel.

The Star LaserPrinter8 superset

Besides the commands that emulate other printers, your laser printer understandsfour other commandscalledthe Star LaserPrinter8 superset. The Star LaserPrintcralways understandssupersetcommands;it doesn’t matterwhichemulationmodeyourprinteris usingat the momcnl.Supcrsct Escape sequencecommandsstafl wilh <ESC> [ so you can quicklyspot them in a list of commands.

Onesupcrsetcommandgivesyouanotherwayto switchfromoneemulation to another:you send the ChangeEmulationsupersetcommandinsteadof using the front panel. The second supersetcommandlets you changethe printingorientation,so you can print sidewaysup the lengthof the page, insteadof acrossitswidthintheusualway.Thethirdsupcrsctcommandlets youchangethepapersize.Thefourthsupersctcommandletsyouchangethe papercassettefor the dual-cassetteprinter.

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