DEFINING YOUR OWN NLQ CHARACTERS
As you probablynoticed,NLQ charactersare printedby two passesof the printhead.Halfofthecharacterisprintedonthefirstpass,andtheremainder onthesecondpass.Thepaperis rolleduphalfa dotheightin betweenpasses to let the print head print dotson the secondpass that overlapthe previous dots, in order to fill in the spacesandproducedensercharacters.Addition- ally, the print head speed is halved,and the dots are printed at doublethe densityof draft characters.For this reason,NLQ characterscan containup to 23 dots in the horizontaldirection.
Fundamentally,theprocessto defineandprint downloadedNLQ character is the same as for draft characters,exceptthat you must supplyaboutfour timesasmuchcharacterdata,andyoumustdesignthecharacterwiththetwo passesof the printhead in mind.Theream smalldifferencesin the waythe attributeinformationis processedalso.
In the draft qualitymodethe attributebyte carriesthe descenderdata, and specifiesthe left spaceand the characterwidth.In the NLQ mode,the first bit also carries the descenderdata, and the next three bits describe the character’sleft space as with the draft characters,but the last four bits describethe right space.Appropriateallocationof data in these seven bits lets you place the character where you like within the grid, with the restrictionthat the charactermust be at least 9 dots wide.
Usethe gridin
To makethe characterdataeasierto calculate,put the first pass dotsinside theboxeson thegridwhenyouaredesigningyourcharacters,andthesecond passdotson the lines.Rememberthat adjacentdotsmaynot overlapon the samepass;in otherwords,if onedotis in a box,its adjacentdoton the same passmaynotbeon a line.Therefore,tomakesmoothcharacters,putthedots neededto overlapany spacesin a characterin the appropriateplacesin the secondpass grid.
If
Thedefiningprocessisthesameas fordraftcharacters,exceptthatyoumust selectNLQ mode, and you must define46 data. If you wish to print your NLQ characterswith the regularcharacterset, the remarks regardingthe
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