Selecting (or describing) a printer is the main step in the installation

process and frequently the only step necessary. If you selected this printer or any Star, Epson or IBM printer you should be able to use software

commands for all the standard printer functions, including bold or dou-

ble-strike printing, underlining, subscripts, superscripts, margin control, line- spacing control, and graphics.

Printer

command options

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides the standard printer functions, however, your printer has some

 

capabilities

your software

may

not be

aware

of,

including

double-

and

 

quadruple-size

printing

and

the

printing

of special

characters

assigned

to

 

control codes. Some software enables you to define these capabilities as user

 

options

in the installation

process.

Read

your

software manual

to find

out

_.

whether you can do this and if so, how.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most useful thing you can do is to define a way to enter the escape code < ESC > , which is the control character with decimal character code

27 (hexadecimal 1B). This code usually cannot be keyed in directly (pressing

the ESC key will not work). As an installation option, however, you may

be able to assign it to a function key or a special key combination. Doing so will put the full power of the printer at your disposal.

Type styles

Some word-processing software has commands that enable you to

change type styles in the middle of a document without a printing pause.

To use these commands you must generally define the printer’s type styles

(fonts) during installation, by assigning them numbers for example. Read your software manual for details, and refer to Appendix B for the relevant printer commands.

Page width

Spreadsheet programs in particular may ask you to specify the printer’s column width. The column width of this printer depends on the character pitch used:

Pica

 

80 columns

 

 

 

Elite

 

96 columns

 

 

 

Semi-condensed

120

columns

(Standard

mode

only)

Condensed

pica

137

columns

 

 

 

Condensed

elite

160

columns

(Standard

mode

only)

The character pitch can be selected from the control panel before you

start printing, or possibly by an initialization sequence as described next.

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Image 38
Star Micronics NX-2400 user manual Printer, Command options