Manuals / Star Micronics / Computer Equipment / Printer

Star Micronics NB-15 Creating Your Own Characters, Chapter, Subjects we’ll cover in include

Models: NB-15

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CREATING YOUR

CHAPTER 8

CREATING YOUR

OWN CHARACTERS

Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 8 include-

*Designing your own characters; • Printing your own characters;

• Print mode and the download characters.

In the previous chapters of this manual you’ve learned how to control the printer to give dozens of different typefaces. By us- ing various combinations of pitches, character weights, and font selections, you can create nearly any effect you want to in text. And with international character sets and the special text and big characters described in Chapter 7, you can print almost any character you think of.

But if “almost any character” isn’t good enough for you, then it’s a good idea you have this printer! With it you can actually create your own characters. As you’ll see in this chapter, download characters can be used to print a logo, special characters for foreign languages, scientific and professional ap- plications, or any other specific printing task.

DOT MATRIX PRINTING

In order to create download characters, you’ll need some understanding of how dot matrix printers work. The process is called dot-matrix printing because each character is composed of small dots arranged on a matrix, or grid. To see how that character grid gets printed, you need to take a look at the print head itself.

The printhead in this printer contains 24 wires apparently ar- ranged in a vertical column. If you were to remove the print head and look at the wires, you would see two staggered col- umns of twelve wires. However, the timing is such that they print as one continuous column of 24 wires.

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Star Micronics NB-15 user manual Creating Your Own Characters, Chapter, Subjects we’ll cover in include

Contents

NOT INTENDED FOR SALE PN USER’S MANUAliSelf Declaration 3 tatementTrademark Acknowledgement A Special Message to the New Owner Setting Up Your Printer Table of ContentsUsing Commercial Software Chapter Chapter ChapterControlling with BASIC ChapterChapter Chapter Printing TextAdjusting the width of space between characters Special Features of the PrinterChapter Chapter Creating Your Own CharactersAppendix B ASCII Codes and Conversion Chart Appendix C Function Codes Appendix A DIP Switch SettingsAppendix D Command Summary in Numeric 191 Order Technical SpecificationsAppendix H Connecting with Computer Appendix G Serial Interface SpecificationsCHAPTER SETTING UP YOUR PRINTERSetting it up Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 1 includeRemoving the printer cover tion and movement for both removing and replacing the cover n Installing the ribbon cartridge n Installing the platen knobOr, if you feel better following written instructions, read on Page n Installing the mute cover W Installing the interface board n Installing the font cartridge Parts of the printer - what they’re for and how to use them GETTING TO KNOW YOUR PRINTERPaper selection and loading Adjustment Testing printer operation CHAPTERFigure 2-1. Front and rear views of the printer Figure 2-2. The control panel H Controls and indicatorsn Extra functions Turning the knob with the power on could damage the - drive gearsFor details, please refer to the end of this chapter n Other controls It has four settings n Loading single sheets L L L L L L To align paper that is not in straight pigure 2-8. Ready to run with sprocket-feed paper Figure 2-7. Open the sprocket covers to expose the sprocket teethSprocket cover paper guide EXTRA FUNCTIONS WITH THE COUTRUL PANEL While trrnirrgon the powern Self-tests Paper Feed key-Self-test 1 long On Line key-Self-test 2 short 2. Insert a sheet of paper, as you did for the self-tests 1. Plug in the printer don’t turn it on yetn Panel modes 1. Plug in the printer don’t turn it on yetDuring normal operation Figure 2- 14. Connect the cable like thm CONNECTING THE PRINTERI. Make sure that both your computer and printer are turn- ed off MEMO CHAPTER USING COMMERCIAL SOFTWAREUsing your printer with SuperCalc Using your printer with word processorsn First, some terminology USING YOUR PRINTER WITH SUPERCALC are now available. It has the capability of using several of the ad Page MEMO CHAPTfiR CONTROLLING WITH BASICCHR$ function Command syntax Problem codes Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 4 includeLPRINT things other than character strings Let’s try what we learned. Type the following ESC “W” ending with MEMO CHAPTER PRINTING TEXTSubjects we’ll cover in Chapter 5 include Letter quality LQ characters Underlining and overlining20 LPRINT CHR$27 xl This line shows Font 2 characters Font selection commandsFunction Control code100 LPRINT ” printing.” Underline and overline commandsprinting 1Function30 LPRINT “This line is BOLDFACE printing 40 LPRINT CHR$27F 10 Demo of boldface50 LPRINT This line is normal printing This line is BOLDFACE printing This line is normal printingSuperscript ON Try this program to see how these two pitches work Permanentexpanded modestayson until modeCHR$15orESCCHR$15 CondensedCHR$18 Here’s what you should get from this program MIXING PRINT MODES print ProportionalSummary notes 1 Pica is the default pitch and is active when Elite is turned offMEMO Setting margins- left, right, and bottom CHAPTERFORMATTING TEXT The amount of space between lines Moving to the next pageprint head to the left margin, ready to start a new line Line 40 defines and changes the line spacing. The command ESC“A”CHR$n defines the line spacing as n/60 of an inch the ESC“2” command changes the line spacing to the amount defined by the previous ESC“A”. The loop that is started in line 20 increases the value of n the variable I in the program each time it is executed. So the line spacing increases as the pro- gram continues. Line 30 shortcuts the loop when I = 13, since BASIC won’t let us send CHR$l3 without adding an unwanted CHR$lO to it. Finally, the ESC“A”CHR$lO and ESC“2” commands in line 80 reset the line spacing to 6 lines per inch IO/60 or l/6 inch The results are the same as previous one n Moving down the page without a carriage return 40 ’ One-time reverse line feed 50 LPRINT CHR$27“j”CHR$lOO OI IOI ESC“N”CHR$n 90 LPRINT CHR$lZ Form feed 100 END 50 FOR I=1 TO 60 LPRINT THIS IS LINE1 70 NEXT20 ’ Leave 6 blank lines at the bottom of page 30 LPRINT CHR$27NCHR$6 80 LPRINT CHR$270 Clear bottom marginTHIS IS LINE THIS IS LINE THIS IS LINE I THIS IS LINE THIS IS LINE Try setting the margins with this program HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL TABS When you run the program now it produces this Absolute horizontal tab Relative horizontal tab n Vertical tabs Try thisprogram tosee how this worksVertical tabs have the same kinds of uses that horizontal tabs 10 ’ Demo of vertical tabs 40 LPRINT CHR$11 “FIRST TAB.” 80 LPRINT CHR$llFIFTH TAB CHRSO W Vertical tab channels120 LPRINT “2ND TAB OF CHANNEL’ 130 LPRINT CHR$12 140 NEXT MEMO Printer’s bell Master reset Uni-directional printing SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE PRINTERCHAPTER Subjects we’ll cover in Chapter 7 includeYou can try this by typing n Backspace, delete, and cancel text Here is what this program will print Now add this line This command can be used to produce micro-justification 10 ’ Uni-directional printing 20 LPRINT CHR$27“A”CHR$6 power on condition 10 LPRINTCHR$270 20 LPRINTCHR$276 30 FOR J=3 TO 159 f 134 a164 A 169 c15 LPRINTCHR$27 95 LPRINTCHR$27= Double-highenlargedprint ESC“h”CHR$l DOUBLE ESCCHR$25 CHR$4 or “4” THIS IS QUAI SIZED PRINTINGESCCHR$25 CHR$l or “1” ESCCHR$25“R” or “R”30 NEXT 40 LPRINT 50 END 10 FOR I=0 TOPage CHAPTER CREATING YOUR OWN CHARACTERSSubjects we’ll cover in Chapter 8 include Designing your own characters Printing your own charactersOO OO O0 O0 O0 O0 O0 O0 O0 O0THE PRINT MATRIX design and download into the printer. When download n Rule 1 Dots cannot overlap 1.igure8-s WRONGUotscannotoverlapthoseinimmediatelyadjacent 123458789dots, the printhead would have to slow down and back up to n Assigningavalueofcharacterspace Figure 8-8. Characterdesignsforthetwographsymbols ESC “&” CHR$O nl n2 m0 ml m2 dl d2 d3 ... dx n Download character definition commandCHR$27CHR$38CHR$OCHR$6OCHR$6O CHR$lCHR$9CHR$2CHR$lCHR$24OCHR$O 30 LPRINTCHR$27“$O”CHR$O 40 END 10 LPRINT CHR$27“%l”CHR$O 20 LPRINTCHR$60CHR$6110 LPRINTCHR$27“%1”CHR$O 20 FOR I=32TO 30 LPRINTCHR$I 40 NEXT 50 LPRINT 60 FOR I=160 TO 70 LPRINT CHR$I 80 NEXT 90 LPRINT Ithat 400 LPRINTCHR$61 410 NEXT 420 LPRINT 430 LPRINTJAPANCHRSg 102 370 LPRINT 380 LPRINTCHR$9 390 FOR I=0 TO 488 STEP440 FOR I=0 TO 347 STEP 450 LPRINTCHR$60 460 NEXT 470 LPRINT 480 LPRINTCHR$9 490 FOR I=0 TO 493 STEP 500 LPRINTCHR$61 510 NEXT90 DATA 1, 9, 2, 31,253,64, 32, 1,128,80 Draft characters mO+ml +m2Letter Qualitv characters n Draft download charactersthan draft characters the same is true of LQ download characters MEMO