Star Micronics SB-15 user manual Creating Your OWN Characters, DOT Matrix Printing

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CHAPTER 9

CREATING YOUR

OWN CHARACTERS

In this chapter we’ll cover:

.-	• Designing		and printing	your own characters
	.-	Designing	proportional	characters
	•

In the previous four chapters of this manual you’ve learned how to control the SD-lo/l 5 printer to give you dozens of dif-

ferent typefaces. By using 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 graphics characters described in Chapter 8, you can print almost any character you can think of.

But if “almost any character” isn’t good enough for you, then it’s a good thing you have an SD-lo/l 5 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 applications, or any other specific printing task.

._ DOT MATRIX PRINTING

In order to create download characters, you’ll need some un- derstanding of how dot matrix printers work. They’re called “dot matrix” because each character is made up of a group of dots. Look closely at some printed characters produced by your SD-lo/l 5 and you will see the dots. Figure 9-l shows how the letter “C” is formed by printing 15 dots.

The printhead in SD-lo/l 5 consists of nine thin wires stacked one atop the other. Figure 9-2 shows an enlarged schematic view of the front of the printhead, showing the ends of the wires and their relationship to the printed characters. As you can see, the capital letters use the top seven wires of the printhead, and the