Star Micronics LC-20 DEFINING YOUR OWN NLQ CHARACTERS

I

DEFINING YOUR OWN NLQ CHARACTERS

Asyou probablynoticed,NLQcharactersareprintedby two passesofthe

printhead.Halfofthecharacters printedonthe firstpass,andtheremainder

onthesecondpass.Thepaperis rolleduphalfadotheightinbetweenpasses

tolet theprint headprintdots onthe secondpassthatoverlap theprevious

dots,bonlerto fill in thespacesand producedenserchamctem.Addition-

ally,the printhead speedis halved,and thedots areprinted atdouble the

densityofdraft characters.Forthisreason,NLQ charactemcancontainup

to23 dots in thehorizontaldirection.

Fundamentally,theprocessto defineandprintdownloadedNLQcharacter

isthe sameas for draftcharacters,exceptthat youmust supplyaboutfour

timesasmuchcharacterdata,andyoumustdesignthecharacterwiththetwo

passes of the print head in mind.There are small differences with the

standardmodein the waythe attributeinformationisprocessedalso.

Inthe draft qualitymodethe attributebytecarriesthe descenderdata,and

specifiestheleft spaceandthe characterwidth.Inthe NLQmode,the first

bit also carriesthe descender data, and thenext three bits describe the

character’sleft space as with the draft charactem,but the last four bits

describetheright space.Appropriateallocationofdatain these sevenbits

lets you place the characterwhere you like within the grid, with the

restrictionthatthe charactermustbe atleast 9dotswide.

Usethegrid inFigure5-4to helpplotthe data.Duetothe two-passprocess,

NLQcharacterscancontainup to16 dotsvertically.mltom23 arethedata

forthe f~st pass,and m24to m46arethe datafor thesecond pass.

Tomake thecharacterdataeasierto calculate,putthe firstpass dotsinside

theboxesonthegridwhenyouare designingyourcharacters,andthesecond

passdotson thelines.Rememberthatadjacentdotsmay notoverlaponthe

samepass;inother words,ifonedot isin abox,itsadjacentdotonthe same

passmaynotbeon aline.Therefore,tomakesmoothcharactm, putthedots

neededto overlapanyspaces inacharacterin theappropriateplacesinthe

secondpassgrid.

Ifweplotourcar-shapedsymbolforNLQ,thegrid datawilllooklikeFigure

5-5.

Thedefiningprocessisthesameasfor draftcharacters,exceptthatyoumust

selectNLQ mode,and youmustdefine 46data. If youwish to printyour

NLQcharacters withthe regularcharacter set,the remarks regardingthe

74

Contents

Main @Copyright1990StarMicronicsCo., Ltd. HOW TO USE THIS MANUAL Page FEATURES OF THE PRINTER TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Page chapter 1 SETTING UP THE PRINTER LOCATING THE PRINTER I UNPACKINGAND INSPECTION Checkthe carton contents Partsname of theprinter SETIWJGUP Mountthe platenknob lnsta//the ribboncartridge Page Ih~,.kribbo. \!j$ 06 & Automaticloading Page Manualloading LOADING AND PARKING FANFOLD FORMS Loadingthepaper Page Page Paperparking Paperunparking ADJUSTING THE PRINTING GAP Page chapter2 CONTROL PANEL OPERATIONS BUTTONS AND INDICATORS The ONL/NE button PAPERFEEDbutton PITCHbutton FONTbutton POWER-UP FUNCTIONS Il:,:;,:a,:,t[lTyj,gJ,,,,, Shorttest mode Longtest mode Stayin panelpitch Stayin panel font Stayin panelpitch and font Hexadecimaldump Page SWITCH COMBINATION FUNCTIONS m Formfeed PaperParking Topof form Forwardmicro-feed Reversemicro-feed Clearingthe buffer Page chapter 3DIP SWITCH SETTINGS e LOCATION OF THE DIP SWITCHES FUNCTIONS OF THE DIP SWITCHES Page Page chapter PRINTER CONTROL COMMANDS FONT CONTROL COMMANDS Selectdraft qualitycharacters Selectdraft elite characters SelectNLQ characters SelectNLQ font Se!ectCouriercharacters SelectSanserif characters SelectOrator characterswithsmall capitals SelectOrator characterswithlower case Selectitalic characters SelectNLQ italic characters Selectupright characters Emphasizedprinting Cancelemphasjzedprjntjng Double-strikeprinting Canceldouble-strikeprinting Startunderlining Stopunderlining Startoverlining Stopoverlining Superscript Subscript Cancelsuperscriptor subscript CHARACTER SETCOMMANDS Selectstandardcharacterset SelectIBM characterset Selectcharacterset #1 Select Enableprintingof all character codes Enable printing of all character codes on next character I Selectslash zero std. Selectnormal zero std. Condensedprinting Cancelcondensedprinting Expandedprinting Cancelexpandedprinting Expandedprintingfor one /ine r <so> Cancelone-lineexpandedprinting Selectproportionalspacing std. Selectmasterprint mode std. Increasecharacterspacing std. Selectdouble or quadruplesize Selectcharacter size Printdouble-heightcharacters sid. Returnto normalheight std. Selectcharacterheight, width,and line spacing VERTICAL POSITION COMMANDS Setline spacing to 1/8inch Setline spacing to 7Y72inch Setline spacing to 1/6inch std. dzsc> 2 27 WI IB 32 Set line spacingto ~/216inch Set line spacingto n/72inch Execute<ESC> A Linefeed Reverseline feed std. Performone n/216-imh line feed Performone n/216-inchreverseline feed std. Feedpaper nlines std. Setpage length ton lines Setpage length ton inches Set bottommargin Cancelbottommargin Formfeed Returnto top of currentpage std. Disablepaper-outdetector Enablepaper-outdetector Set verticaltab stops Set verticaltab stopseveryn lines std. Set verticaltab stopsin channel std. Verticaltab HORIZONTAL POSITION COMMANDS Set left margin std. Setright margin Set leftand right margins Carriagereturn Setautomatic line feed Cancelautomaticline feed Backspace Leftjustify std. Rightjustify std. Sethorizontal tabstops Sethorizontal tabstops everyn columns std. Horizontaltab Relativehorizontaltab Absolutehorizontaltab in inches Absolutehorizontaltab in columns GRAPHICS COMMANDS Printnormal-density8-bitgraphics Printdouble-density8-bitgraphics Printdouble-density,double-speed8-bitgraphics Printquadruple-density8-bitgraphics Selectgraphicsmode Convertgraphicsdensity IStd. I<ESC> ? nmI27 MnmIIB 3F nm Print9-pin graphics DOWNLOAD CHARACTER COMMANDS Definedraft downloadcharacters DefineNLQ downloadcharacters std. drno ml m2 d d ml ddmo ml d Definedraft downloadcharacters DefineNLQ downloadcharacters Copycharacterset from ROMinto RAM sid. <ESC> : <O> n<o> 27 56 0 n OIB 3A 00 n 00 Selectdownloadcharacterset std. Selectdraft downloadcharacterset Selectdraft elite downloadcharacterset SelectNLQ downloadcharacterset SelectROM characterset std. Set MSBto 1 std. Set MSBto O std. AcceptMSB as is Quietprint Cancelquietprint Setprinter off-line std. Setprinter on-line Bell Bidirectionalprinting Unidirectiona/printing One-1ineunidirectionalprinting Manualfeed Auto feed Ejectpaper fromASF Setprint start positiononASF Resetprinter chapter 5 DOWNLOAD CHARACTERS DESIGNING YOUR OWN DRAFT CHARACTERS I Definingthe attributedata Page Page LLlEL EX DEFINING YOUR OWN NLQ CHARACTERS 75 Page chapter 6 MS-DOS AND YOUR PRINTER INSTALLING APPLICATION SOFTWARE WITH YOUR PRINTER EMBEDDING PRINTER COMMANDS PRINTER COMMANDS PROGRAMMING THE PRINTER WITH DOS COMMANDS Page PROGRAMMING WITH BASIC Page *;CHR.$(B); Select *;CHR$(B); 84 Page pw w l c c Ihub 1es ized, Q i . Page c 7 AND MAINTENANCE TROUBLESHOOTING Ps If thePOWER indicatordoes notilluminate,checkthe following: P Ifyour printerdoesnot print,or suddenlystopsprinting,checkthe follow- ing: If theprint is faint,or uneven,checkthe following: If dotsare missingin the printing,checkthe following: sistentlythroughoutthe ptiting? If yourapplicationsoftwarecannot printthe fonts or charactersselected, checkthe following: Ifthe printoutis not whatis expected: Pf If cut sheetpaper (withoutthe ASF) is not feeding smoothly,check the 92 i . . r If the ASF is not operatingor is not feeding paper correctly,check the Ifthe paperparkfacilitydoesnot appeartobe workingcorrectly,checkthe Check Possibleremedy Isthepaperreleaseleverin Thepaperreleaselevermustbesetto the ~position If Ifthepagelengthandmarginsarenot whatisexpected,checkthefollowing: MAINTENANCE REPLACING THE PRINT HEAD Page Page Page c 8 ( Page WND 102 I2IDATAO IHi~hwhenactive I ~ I c 9 I ~ L Page Page Page INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER SETS IBM CHARACTER SET #2 B% -G ix _ x h Page -b - Page Page INDEX m ml m L D1 COMMAND SUMMARY IBM std. IBM <HT> <LF> <VT> <FF> Form < Irr <me> 6: nCc <Esc> <E %M <m,c>p Selectdraftqualitycharacters SelectNLQcharacters