Star Micronics NB-15 user manual MO+ml +m2

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THE PRINT MODE AND THE DOWNLOAD CHARACTERS

In the example program above, before we defined the new characters, we selected the Draft print mode. By doing this, we

caused user-defined characters to print as draft characters because user-defined characters assume the mode that is in ef- fect at the time they are defined.

The modes that affect user-defined characters are draft, and letter quality printing. (The (ESC) “x” n command selects be- tween draft (n = 0) and letter quality (n= l).)

The commands for defining characters, selecting the download character set, and copying ROM are exactly the same for each of the user-defined print styles. The print mode in ef- fect when the characters are defined determines the mode of the user-defined characters.

The print mode determines the size of the grid upon which the characters are designed and the speed at which they print. Table 8-l shows the different character grid sizes for each of the print modes.

	Table 8-l
Download	character design grids
	ml	mO+ml +m2
	(Maximum)	(Maximum)
Draft characters	9	12
Letter Qualitv characters	15	18

nDraft download characters

As you’ve seen, draft characters are designed on a grid which is 9 dots wide by 24 dots high (plus up to three columns of dots for space between characters). Draft download characters print at the same high speed as normal draft characters, even though they may print with more dots and may even be designed for pro- portional spacing.

nLetter quality download characters

If you select letter quality printing with the (ESC) “x” 1 com- mand or by the control panel, you can design your own characters on a grid which is 15 dots wide by 24 dots high. Each character can be as wide as 18 dots, including space on either side of the character. The dot columns are spaced closer