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chapter 4USINGTHEPRINTER
WITHDOSAND BASIC
Although you willprobably do most of your printing with the aid of
commercial software, at times you willwant to employ direct commands
or programs of your own. This chapter will give you some ideas. Three
subjectsare covered:
āHard-copyingthe screen
.Programming the printer with DOS commands
āProgramming the printer with BASIC
HARD-COPYING THE SCREEN (MS-DOS AND PC-DOS)
If your computer has aPRTSC (or PrtSc) key,there is an easy way to
gethard copy of the screen. Pressthe SHIFT and PRTSC keys. The printer
willprint the c-urrentscreen contents. The PRTSC key works both at the
systemcommand level and whileyou are running application software.
Normally thePRTSC key prints only textdata, but if your DOS system
includesafile named GRAPHICS.COM, you can hard-copy graphics dis-
playsby first typing the command:
AX+RAPHICS
You willfind that graphics printing takes considerably more timethan
text printing. See your DOS manual for further information on the
GRAPHICS command.
Atthe DOS command level, thereisalso asimplewayto have theprinter
printhard copy continuously,insteadof onescreenat atime. Pressthe CTRL
key, hold it down, then also pressthe PRTSC key. If your computer does
not have aPRTSC key, press the CTRL and Pkeys.Nothing visible will
happen, but you havejust switchedon the print-screen function. After this,
the printer will hard-copy all text displayed.For example, try typing the
directorycommand:
A)DIR
You willobtain aprinted directory.