Star Micronics 8 Series manual Defining the space and column, Defining line depth

For n you enterthe numberof linesper inch you want—any of: 1,2,3,4, 6,8, 12, 16,24 or48. If youentera numberotherthanthesethe printerwill ignorethe command.

Defining the space and column

Beforeyou use printpositioningcommands,you first may wantto change thedefinitionsofthelineorspace(sometimescalled“verticalandhorizontal motionindexes,”VMIandHMI).Thesedefinitionsdon’tactuallymovethe print position. Instead, they define two basic units you can use in print positioncommands.

What’simportantaboutthespaceis thatitdefineshowfar theprintposition travelsforeverycharacteryouprint(exceptforproportionallyspacedtext). Thespacecan alsobethoughtof asthewidthof a verticalprintcolumn.One columnwidthisthewidthofthespacecharacterin thecurrentfont,nomatter whetherit is monospacedor proportionallyspaced.

Occasionallyyou may want to changespace widthto overridethe current pitchsetting. Let’slook at an example. The spacewidthcomesin unitsof l/120thof aninch,andtheCourierfontcanprintIOcharacterspcrinch.Each charactercovers a tenth— 12/120the of an inch, so that font’s default space width is 12 units. If we changeits space width to 6, each character wouldhalf-overlapthe one beforeit.

If you are using<S1>and <SO>to shiftbetweena primaryand secondary font,it’s a good idea to changethe spacewidth after every shift.

To changethe spacewidthyou send this command:

<ESC>&k n H

in whichforn youcanentera numberfromO(zero)to 840.A widthof Owill print characterson top of each other;a widthof 840 will print them seven inchesaprt.

Defining line depth

The linedepth(sometimescalledthe“verticalmotionindex”)specifieshow fardownapagetheprintpositionwillmoveforeachlinefeed.Youprobably won’tuse the linedepthas muchas lines-per-inch.Linedepthcan be more precisebut it isn’tas easy to calculate.Thelinedepthcomesin multiplesof l/48th of an inch.

The importantfact aboutthe line depthis that when you changeit you are

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