Star Micronics Delta user manual Rule 2 Dots cannot overlap

Creating Your Own Characters 77

letters, and most special characters use only the top seven pins of the printhead. This is also the standard for download characters, so our grid is only seven dots high.

It’s also possible to use the bottom seven pins, just as the “g”, “P“, “q”, and “y” of the standard character sets do. These are called descenders (because the bottom of the character descends below the baseline of the rest of the characters).

One bit in the download character definition command is used to tell Delta whether a character is to be treated as a descen- der or not. We’ll get to the command in due time. For now, if your character uses the top seven dots, write in a zero next to the word “Descender” on the layout grid; if it uses the bottom seven dots, write in a one. In our example, we’ll want the bottom of the heart to line up with the baseline of the other characters, so it will not be a descender. As shown in Figure 7-5, we’ve written in a “0” on our grid.

n, =

Descender

Width

n, = Descender •16 + Width

Format:

Esc*ln,n2m, m,,

Total

Figure 7-5.We’ve designed a character and decided that it would not be a descen- der. hence the “0” written in.

Rule 2: Dots cannot overlap

As you can see in Figure 7-5 our heart will print fairly solid. But, you may ask, why not make it really solid and print all the intermediate dots, as shown in Figure 7-6? Because the dots that straddle the vertical lines in the grid actually overlap those inside