Star Micronics LaserPrinter 8 Series User manual

L 8

Series

A M

8

Series

Applications Manual

Trademark Acknowledgements

LaserPrinter 8: StarMicronicsCo., Ltd.

PageMaker: Aldus CqSOraticsr

Apple II +, Applesoft: Apple ComputerInc.

BitStream,~apf Humanist: BitstreamInc.

Canon: CanonInc.

Centronics: CentronicsData Computer Corporation

HP, LaserJet Series H: Hewlett-PackardCompany

LaserControl: Insight Developmentfrrc.

IBM PC, IBM Proprinter: InternationalBusinessMachinesCorp.

Optim~ Century Schoolbook: LinotypeCorporation

Lotus 1-2-3: Lotus Development Corporation

MS-DOS, Microsoft BASIC, Windows, Word, Microsoft BASIC: Microsoft Corporation

MultiMate: Muhrrratefntemational

TRS-80: RadioShack,a division of TandyCorporation

Epson, EX-800: Seiko EpsursCorporation

WordPerfect: WordPerfect Corporation

Ventura Publisher, Hyplot, Diablo 630: XeroxCorporatimr

NOTICE

. Alf rights reserwed.Reproduction of any part of this manual in any form whatsoever without

STAR’s express permission is forbidden.

. The contents of this manual are subject to change without notice.

. AUeffons have been made to ensure the accuracy of the contents of this manual at the time of

press. However, sbould any errors be detected, STAR woufdgreatly appreciate being informed

of them.

. The above rrotwithstarrding,STAR can assume no responsibility for any errors in this manual.

PREFACE

About this manual

ThisSrarLuserPrinter8 ApplicationsManual givesyouthe information

youneedto programtheStarMicronicsLaserPrinter8.

Whywouldyoureadthisbook? Mostpeopleusingalaserprinterjust run

softwarepackageswithbuilt-inprinterdrivers,whichlookaftereverything

theircomputerssendtheirprinters.Butmanyofus-small businesspeople

and home computerusers, not to mentionthe wizardswho write those

softwarepackages—wanttobenefitfromallthenewfeaturesofferedbyour

printers.

Doyouwantcompletecontroloverthecharactersandimagesyoupnnt? Do

youwantto makeyourStarLaserPrinter8 worklikesomeearlierkindof

printer? Thismanualprovidesthesoftwarehelpyouneedto getthemost

fromyourLaserPrinter8.

ThoughthisApplicationsManual is reallyintendedfor intermediateto

advancedcomputerusers,we’vetriedtoaccommodaterelativenovicestoo.

The informationis organizedso youcan walkthroughthegeneraltheory

underlyingprinterprogrammingbefore dancinginto specificdetails. It

makessense,therefore,to readthefirstthreechaptetxbeforejumpinginto

themiddle.

There’sagoodreasontoreadeachchapterfromitsstarttoo.Peoplelearning

howtouseanewprinteroftenfindtheterminologyabarrier. Soinsteadof

buryingwhatmaybencwjargonin aGlossaryattheback,wedefineeach

newtermthefirsttimeitappears.Thewholefirstpartofthechapteronfonts,

forexample,definesdifferentaspectsofafont (acollectionofcharactersof

thesamesizeandstyle).

What’s in this manual?

.

In “Gettingto KnowYourStarLaserPrinter8“weprovidea listof the

featuresthat make this a splendidprinter,to help you choosewhich

featuresyouwantto exploit. There’sa biton howlaserprinterswork,

insideandout. Thechapterthenexplainssoftwarein generalterms,in-

cluding how to write control and Escape commandsto make those

featureswork.

“ControllingYour Printer” examines the parametersand “superset”

commandsyougivetheStarLaserPrinter8to directpreciselyhowyou

wantittobehave.Theseletyoucontroltheprinter,managepageformats,

andspecifywhatyouwantprinted.

Formostof us, the“Fonts”chapterwillbeuseful: howtousethefonts

built i_ntothe LaserPrinter8, plus those that come on cartridgesor

computerdisks.

Youmay neverlook at morethanoneor two of chapters4 through7,

which cover Star LaserPrinter8 commands. Your LaserPrinter8

emulatesotherprintem:itimitatesotherpnntembyacceptingthesame

commandstheydo. JustthinkofyourStarLaserPrinter8 asfourprinters

hidinginsideoneunit.

Ifyouwanttowriteormodifyaprogramthatusesoneoftheseprinters—

theHewlett-PackardLaserJetseriesII,EpsonEX-800,IBMProprinteror

XeroxDiablo630- chapters4 through7 showhow yourStarLaser-

Printer8 canemulateto accordingly.Thechaptersfirstdescribehowto

controltheprinterandto formatpages,thenhowtomovetheprintposi-

tion,andfinallyhowto usefontsandgraphics.

ThechapterontheLaserJetseries11islongerandmoredetailedthanthe

others.That’sbecauseyouaremorelikelytouselaserprintercommands

than commandsfor dot matrix or daisywheelprinters. (If you have

softwaredesignedonlyfordotmatrixor daisywheelprinters,youmay

have manualsfor those printersanyway.) We recommendyou use

LaserJetseriesIIemulationwheneverpossible,withEX-800emulation

as yourbackupmode.

● Thefinal“TechnicalSupplement”containingthecommandandcharac-

ter referencetableswillprobablygetthumbedthemost.

Conventions

Incidentally,oneofthoseTechnicalSupplementtablessuggestsacoupleof

typographicconventionswe’lluse.Baseten(decimal)numberswillgener-

allybe usedhere;if we haveto use basesixteennumbers(hexadecimal)

we’llexpresslysayso.

Andsecond,thelowercaseLispracticallyidenticaltothenumberone(1vcr-

sus 1). BecauselowercaseL isusedinmanycommanddescriptions,we’ll

usethecharactert’toavoidconfusion.

The Star LaserPrinter 8 Operations Manual

ThismanualisthecompaniontotheStarLaserPrinter8OperationsManual

thatcamewithyourprinter.Alaserprinterisa fairlycomplextoolthatre-

quirescareanddelicatehandling.SotousethisApplicationsManualbest,

makesureyouunderstandthatOperationsManual first.

Your OperationsManual holds essentialinformationabout the Lascr-

Pnnter,8,suchashowto:

● unpackandsetupyourlaserprinter,

● connecttheStarLaserPrinter8 toyourcomputer’sserialorparallelport,

● iinktheLaserPrinter8 intoanetworkof severalcomputers,

● configuretheLaserPrinter8to yourneeds(wilhvanablcssuchaspaper

sizeandspeedofdatatransfer),

● loadpaperandthetonercartridge,

● operatethepanelswitchesanddisplay,

● runthe LaserPrinter8 self-test,

● lookafteryourprinterto keepit in peakcondition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 GETTING TO KNOW YOUR STAR

LASERPRINTER 8

1

Star

LaserPrinter8 Hardware.................................................................1

StarLaserPrinter8 Software..................................................................5

CHAPTER 2 CONTROLLING YOUR PRINTER

13

PrinterParameters................................................................................13

ControllingthePrinter..........................................................................16

ControllingthePage.............................................................................21

ControllingthePrinting........................................................................28

TheStarLaserPrinter8 Superset.........................................................29

CHAPTER 3 FONTS

35

FontTerminology.................................................................................35

HowtheStarLaserPrinter8 StoresFonts............................................38

SymbolSets..........................................................................................41

ManagingFonts....................................................................................44

CHAPTER4 HPLASERJETII COMMANDS

51

HPLaserJetIICommands....................................................................51

ControllingthePrinter..........................................................................53

PageOrientation...................................................................................56

MovingthePrintPosition.............................................................,.......61

ControllingFonts..................................................................................70

UsingYourOwnFonts...........:......,......................................................85

Graphics................................................................................................89

Macros..................................................................................................94

CHAPTER 5 EPSON EX-800 COMMANDS

99

EX-800Commands..............................................................................99

ControllingthePrinter........................................................................101

FormattingPages................................................................................102

MovingthePrintPosition............... ...................................................105

ControllingFonts................................................................................110

Graphics.............................................................................................119

CHAPTER 6 IBM PROPRINTER COMMANDS

125

ProprinterCommands.........................................................................125

ControllingthePrinter........................................................................126

FormattingPages................................................................................127

MovingthePrintPosition...................................................................127

ControllingFonts................................................................................13(J

Graphics..............................................................................................133

CHAPTER 7 XEROX DIABLO630COMMANDS

135

DiabloCommands..............................................................................135

ControllingthePrinter........................................................................136

FormattingPages................................................................................137

MovingthePrintPosition...................................................................140

ControllingFonts................................................................................145

Graphics

..............................................................................................

l~g

CHAPTER 8 TECHNICAL SUPPLEMENT

153

Commandsummary...........................................................................154

Symbolsets

........................................................................................162

INDEX

213

ThischapterintroducesboththehardwareandsoftwareaspectsoftheStar

LaserPrinter8’s personality,from fonts and print engineto ASCII and

Escapesequences.

STAR LASERPRINTER 8 HARDWARE

Versatility

YourStarMicronicsStarLaserPrinter8workswithpracticallyallcommcr-

cialsoftwareprogramsandcomputers.WithfeaturesthatgobeyondStar’s

easy,affordable9-pinandfast,quality-printing24-pindotmatrixprinters,

the Star Laser Printer is the logicalnext step in the series of fine Star

Micronicsprinters.

Your Star LaserPrinter 8 produces pages that look close to typeset quality,

with up to 90,000 dotsper square inch— no more NLQ (near letter quality)

compromises.

The Star LaserPrinter8 produceseight of those pages a

minute,Thesenumberstranslateto aboutfivetimesmore resolutionand

speedthantheaveragedot-matrixprinter.

Star’snewprinterisremarkablyversatile.Youcanprintcomplicatedforms

(widthwiseif youwant)... detailedgraphs... yourown customizedtype-

styles... digitizedphotographs... otherlanguages(includingArabicand

Japanese).

Youcan evenprintyourletterheadandlogo as youprintyourletter,and

reprintthem directlyonto a businessenvelope.You don’teven need to

removethepapertraytoprinttheenvelope:justslideitintothemanualfeed

slot.

1

TheStarLaserPrinter8isidealfordesktoppublishing.Thepagesitproduces

makeperfectphotocopyorinstant-printmasters.Andallthemaindesktop

publishingsystems,includingAldusCorporation’sPageMakerandXerox

VenturaPubisher,worksplendidlywiththeStarLaserPrinter8.With’’page

makeup”programsliketheseyouwillbe able—maybeforthefirsttime—

to delivercommunicationswiththeimpactof top-notchgraphics.

Font options

Youcan print withanamazinglywidevarietyoftypefontsandsizes.The

StarLaserPrinter8comeswithfourbuilt-infonts,whichcanbeprintedfrom

8.5pointsto 12pointsin size(apoint is about1/72of an inch).

Thesefontsarc:

Courier

Prestige Elite

Tms Romn

Lino Pr i ntar

Besidesfiese, youmaybe abletouseoptionalcartridgesanddisksto give

yourStarL&serPnnter8 a varietyof extrafonts,suchas these:

Helvet

linedrawing

LetterGothic presentationfonts

Bar codes opticalcharacterreaderfontsuniversalproductcode

You can load your Star LaserPrinter8’smemory with fonts stored on

computerdisks.Literallyhundredsof fonts are marketedby font-supply

companies.Somefontsareevenobtainablefromcomputer“usergroups”or

“electronicbulletinboards”.Fontsyougetthiswayareinthepublicdomain,

whichmeansyoudon’tneedto payalicencefeetousethem.

Ask your Star LaserPrinter8 dealeraboutresourceslike these. Desktop

publishingwith laser printers is fast-changingterritory,and some Star

Micronicsstaffpeoplehavefoundelectronicbulletinboardsandcomputer

usergroupsquitehelpfulinkeepingupwiththechangingpace.Ifyouinvest

a littletimethiswayitmayrepayyou’well.

2

How your Iaserprinter communicates

YourcomputercommunicateswiththeStarLaserPrinter8througheithera

parallelcableoroneoftwokindsof serialcable.Theprinter’sinterj2ace,

the link or boundaryit shares with yourcomputer,defineswhetherthe

printerwillacceptcharactersandcommandsfromyourcomputeronebyte

or onebit at atime.

Abitisthesmallestunitofcomputerorprintermemory.Ithaseitheralow

orhighelectriccharge,whichwerepresentwiththedigitsOand 1.Usually

eight adjacentbits are groupedto form a byte. Since a byte normally

representsonecharacter,thisstringofbits- O1OOOOO—mightrepresent

theletterA.

The serialinterfaceacceptsjust one bitat a time fromyourcomputer.A

parallelinterfacecanhandleawholebyteatonce,bymovingdatabitsside-

by-sidealongseparatewires.Youchoosewhichinterfacemethodyouwant

to use by selectingit on the operatorpanel, as explainedin your Star

LaserPrinter8 OperationsManual.

The Star LaserPrinter 8 is a computer

TheStarLaserPrinter8 firstmapsthecharactersto beprintedintoitsown

randomaccessmemory(RAM).Thatis,theprinterbuildsa“picture”inits

memorycorrespondingtothepageyouwanttoprint.Whenthat’sdonethe

pnntercanreproducethepageontopaperonitsown,lettingyourcomputer

geton’withotherwork.

YourStarLaserPrinter8comeswithonemegabyteofRAM—theequiva-

lentof aboutonemillioncharacters.A StarLaserPrinter8 optionletsyou

addasecondmegabyteofRAMif,say,youneedtomapfull-pagegraphics

orstoremorefonts. AccompanyingallthatRAMisanother512kilobytes

ofreadonlymemory(ROM),containingalibraryofinternalfontsandthe

programsthatlettheStarLaserPrinter8 emulateotherprinters.

AMotorola68000computerchipcontrolsboththememoryandtheprinting

mechanismintheprinter,calledtheprintengine.Theprintcrstoresawhole

pagein RAM beforeprintingit. (If a pageis so densethat it overflows

memory-a mostunlikelyevent—theStarLaserPrinter8printsthepageon

two sheets.)

3

The Print engine

It’s tie print enginethatforms the actualcharactersand graphics.The

enginedirectsitslaser,apinpointstreamoflightpulses,throughmirrorsand

lensesontothe surfaceof a positively-chargedrotatingdrum.

r“’””’

Lens

Laser beam

Scanning mirror

uctor laser diode

Photosensitive drum

Asthelaserscans,it“draws”thepage-mapstoredinyourprinter’smemory.

Whereveralightpulsestrikes,thattinypartofthedrumdropsto aneutral

electricalcharge.That spot then attractsfine toner powder as the drum

rotatespastthepowdercompartment.

Asthedrumrotatesfurtheritmeetsthepaper.Thepaperitselfisnegatively

chargedbypassingbyafinecoronawire.Sinceoppositechargesattract,the

negativepaperclingsto thepositivedrum.Thenheatandpressurefroma

rollermeltorjkre thedotsoftonerontothepaper,preciselyreproducingthe

image.

Finallythepaperslidesintotheoutputbin.Thepaperusuallycomesoutface

downso itstacksinthecorrectsequence.

4

STAR LASERPRINTER 8 SOFTWARE

Binary and hexadecimal arithmetic

If you alreadyknow what hexadecimalnumbersare, you can skip this

sectionandgo aheadto readaboutASCII.

The decimalnumbersystemwithwhichwe’reall familiaris a positional

counting system. There’s the

“ones” position,the “tens” position,the

“hundreds”positionandsoon.Eachhigherpositionisworthtcntimesmore

thanthepositionto therightofit,sincethedecimalsystemusesthebaseof

ten.Moreover,weneedtensymbolsto showtheactualvaluesthatmaybe

in eachposition.

Thebinarysystemispositionaltoo.There’sthe“ones”position,the“twos”

position,the“fours”position,the“eights”positionandsoon.Inbinaryeach

positionisworthonlytwicethatofthepositiontoitsright.Andweonlyneed

twosymbols-O (zero)and1(one)-to showthevaluesthatmaybeinany

position.So inbinarywegetnumbersthatlooklike 1010or 10001100.

Thehexadecimalsystemismadeofbase-sixteennumbers.Hexadecimalis

positionalliketheothercountingsystems.Andeachhigherpositionisworth

sixteentimesasmuchasthepositionto itsright.

We need sixteendifferentsymbolsto show all the possiblevaluesone

hexadecimaldigit could have. We can use our decimal system’s ten

symbols,butwe’vehadtoborrowa fewmorefromour alphabetto getall

thesymbolsweneed.Inhexadecimal,therefore,youcanhaveanumberthat

lookslike2C7C,orevenFACE.

Here’showthedecimal,binaryandhexadecimalnumbersystemscompare:

Decimal

o

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Binary

Ooo1

0010

0011

0100

0101

0110

0111

Hexadecimal

o

1,

2

3

4

5

6

7

Decimal

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

Binary

1(W3

1001

1010

1o11

1100

1101

1110

1111

Hexadecimal

8

9

A

B

c

D

E

F

5

Theimportantthingtorealizeisthatthere’smorethanonewaytoshowthe

samenumericvalue.Computerprogrammers,forexample,occasionallyuse

thehexadecimalsystembecauseit’s socompact.(Programmersoftenjust

say“hex”.)Thisbinarynumber:

101001011111110100110111111011010010110100001001

looksquiteabittidierwhenitiswrittenasA5FD37ED2D09,whichmeans

thesamething.

TheASCII table

Wheredoesthe Star LaserPrinter8 get the charactersand instructionsit

needsto print in the firstplace?It getsthemfromyourcomputer,which

sendsa streamoftextandcommandsto yourprinter.

Theprogramin yourcomputerthatcontrolseverythingsentto theprinter

(calledthe printer driver) will usuallybe includedwith your computer

programsrsuchasyourwordprocessor.Butthecommandscouldalsocome

fromaprogramyou’vewritten,perhapsinBASIC,aprogramminglanguage

thatusescommonEnglishwords.

Internally,computemand printersuse onlythe binarynumbersystemto

representboth commandsand all the alphabetic,numericand otherkey-

boardsymbols.Nearlyallof thosemachinesusethesameschemeto code

thosesymbols,theAmericanStandardsCodeforInformationInterchange

(ASCII). ‘

Anexample:inourfamiliardecimalsystem,binary01001010addsuptothe

number 74. Dependingon which program your printer is using, it can

interpretthatbinarystring01001010aseitherthenumber74orthesymbol

J. TheprinterstoresthesymbolJ atposition74in a tablein itsmemory.

Thateight-bitbinarystring,orbyte,canbebrokenintotwohalves.Theleft

orhigh-orderpartcontaining0100is calledthezoneportion;therightpart

holdingthe1010iscalledthedigitspdion. Andinthehexadecimalnumber

system,the zone and digitparts of that byte are representedas 4 and A

respectively(lookthemup in thelist above).

SothelaserprinterunderstandsthesymbolJ as01001010,whichwecan

alsorepresentas the decimalnumber74 or the hexadecimalnumber4A.

We’veprintedthisbyteverticallyandhorizontallybelow,showinghowit

addsup todecimal74 andhex4A.

6

o x 27

1x 26

0x25

0x 24

1x

23

0

x 22

1x 2’

ox 2°

zone

0100

4

=

o

= 64

=

o

n

o

=

8

=0

=

2

=

Q

74 Decimal

digits

1010 Binary

A

Hexadecimal

The ASCIItablein theTechnicalSupplementshowsalltheseequivalent

representationsfor the symbolsyourlaser printerunderstands.The table

organizestheminascendingorder.Infact,ASCIIisorganizedinawaythat

ac@allymakessense.

Flipbackthereforaquicklookrightnow.Seehowyoucanslicethetable

into clumpsof 16or 32, basedon what’sin the zoneportionunder the

hexadecimalcolumn?Theseclumpsmakesubgroupsof similarsymbols:

● hex00 to IF arethecommandsymbolscalledcontrolcodes,

● hex20to 40 arcthecommonkeyboardsymbolsandnumerals,

● hex41 to 60arecapitallettersandthelesscommonkeyboardsymbols,

● hex’61to 7F arelowercaselettersanda fewfinalsymbols.

That takes care of the first 128ASCII symbols.However,nearly every

co’mputerand printer manufacturertreats the second half of the table

differently. Hewlett-Packard,for example,puts a variety of accented

foreignlanguagecharactersintopositions128-255(oftenreferredtoashigh

ASCII). Epson gives you a choice of either italics charactersor IBM

charactergraphics.

Control codes

TheASCIItableshowssymbolslikeJor2 thewaytheyactuallyprintonthe

laserprinter.ButASCIIincludesmorethanjust printablecharacters:none

of thecontrolcodecommandsat thebeginningof thetableactuallyprint.

Instead,when your computersendsa controlcode to the laser printerit

makesyourprinterdo otherthings,suchas sounditsbccpcr.

7

I

Controlcodesmostlyhandlecommunicationsbetweenyourcomputerand

thepnnter.atthelowestlevel,atcablelevel.Forexample,acoupleofcontrol

codesmakesuretheprinterbufler(yourprinter’sstoragememory)doesn’t

overflow. In this book we’ll indicatecontrol codes enclosed by angle

bracketsto their abbreviationsin the table:<FF> meansthe Form Feed

controlcode,whichadvancestheprintertothenextpagejustasthePRINT

buttondoes.

Escape sequences

Controlcode 27, <ESC>or Escape,is a particularlyimportantone for

printers.Totellyourprinterallthe thingsyou mightneed— settingmargins,

saying where to print, choosing a particular font, starting graphics and so

on— requires many more thanjust two or three dozen control codes. So the

<ESC> control code has a special meaning: <ESC> means “the next

character specifies a command, not something to be printed”.

Thereforeif yousendjustthecharacter4 totheprinterit willprinta4 and

that’sall. 13utifyousendthe<ESC>codejustbeforethe4 thentheprinter

(in EX-800

mode) will switch over to italics text. Extending the control

codes this way gives you many more commands to control

yourprinter.in

fact,these“Escapesequences”makeupmostoftheStarLaserPnntcr’slan-

guage.

In thisbookwe’llleavespacesbetweencharacterswhenwe showescape

sequences.You’llfind

<ESC>

(SopIOh12vos 3T

a bitmorereadablethan

<ESC>(sOp10h12vOs3T

Butrememberthatyouarenottosendthosespacesifyousendcommands

to theprinter.

To sumup,printercommandsareoftwotypes.A controlcodeisasingle-

charactercommandthattellsyourprintertodosomething,likemovedown

oneline.AnEscapesequencecontrolsaprinteroperationtoo,butismore

thanonecharacterlong.Sincetheyarecommands,neithercontrolcodesnor

escapesequencesamusuallyprintablecharacters.

8

Printer drivers

Mostsoftwarepackagesalreadyincludetheprintercommandstheyneed.

Theprogramsthatsendcommandstotheprintersoyoudon’thavetoenter

themyourselfarecalledprinterdrivers.

Manyprogramsaskyouto installor configureyourprinter,whichusually

meanskeyingintoamenutheparticularsetupinformationdescribingyour

StarLaserPrinter8.Youentersuchthingsashowyouwant to underline,

alterlinespacing,or moveto anewprintposition.

Someprograms,suchas WordPetiect andthesystemsfromLotusDevel-

opmentCorporation,let youputprinterEscapesequencesbeforeor right

insidethedocumentyouwanttoprint.Toturnonboldface,forexarnple,you

mightholddownspecialkeysonyourkeyboard,oftenlabellcdCONTROL

orALT,asyoupressanotherkey.OryoumightuseaspecialFunctionkey,

suchasF6.

Infact,totakerealadvantageofyourStarLascrPnnter8’sspecialabilities,

youmightoptforawordprocessorthatletsyouspecifyfontchangeseasily.

WordPerfectandMicrosoftWord arestrongatthis,butarebynomeansthe

onlygoodfontmanipulators.

If youhavetroubleusingaparticularprogramwithyourStarLaserPrinter

8, you’ll probablyget answers most quickly by asking your software

supplierhowtheprograminteractswithyourprinter.

Inthismanualwerefertoprograms,fontsandotherproductssoldbyseveral

companies.PleaserealizethatmentioningtheseproductsdoesnotmeanStar

Micronicsendorsestheminanyway.

Sending your own printer commands

Withouta printerdriver,sendingcontrolcodesand Escapesequencesto

yourprinterproperlyrequiressomeknowledgeofaprogramminglanguage

likeBASICor Pascal,or atleastofhowtoputsuchcodesintoa program.

Withprogramminglanguages,thecomputerdoesn’tacton thecommands

youputintoa programuntilyoutellit to runthatprogram.

Whenyougivea commandto the printerfroma computerprogram,you

normallyentereachpartofthecommandasaseparatecharacter.Thisway

youdon’taffectanythingelsehappeningonthecomputer.Youoftensend

eachcodeorcharacterin thecommandbygivingitspositionin theASCII

table,asa decimalor hexnumber.

9

A BASIC example

Here’s an example you can typo in right now, to clarify what we’re saying.

It’s

writtenin MicrosoflBASICfor a computerthat uses the MS-DOS

operatingsystem,soif youhavea differentcomputeror BASICyoumay

havetotranslateabit.We’11showcommandsthewaythey’rewrittenforan

Epsondot-matrixprinterbecauseyourStarLaserPrinter8understandsthose

commands.

TheLPRINTcommandsallsenddatatotheprinter.Ifthedataissomething

youwantprintedyoujust putit inquotationmarks.Ifthedatais acontrol

codeyoujustsaywhereitisintheASCIItable,givingitspositionasaregular

decimalnumber.

BASICusuallysendsacarnagereturnafterevery80characters,tokeepthe

print positionmovingwhenit hitstheendof a line.Unasked-forcarriage

returnscanmessupyourprinting,however,soii’sa goodhabitto putina

WIDTHstatementas shown.Thatletsus printoverthewholepagearea.

The<BEL>controlcode—ASCIIcode7— issentinBASICasCHR$(7).

The<ESC>codeitselfisCHR$(27).Andbecausewe’reusingthecharacter

4 as

part of an <ESC>command,wetypeCHR$(52)insteadof “4”.

Soif youstartBASICandtypethesecommands:

NEW

10 ‘ EXAMPLE

20 tiIDTH “LPT1:”, 255

30 LPRINT CHR$(7)

40 LPRINT CHR$(27) ;CHR$(52)

50 LPRINT “ITALICS !“

60 END

RUN

youmaketheprinter(inEX-800mode)firstsoundits bell—mostpeople

callit abeeper—andthenprinttheline:

ITALICS!

Generally,whenyousendacontrolorEscapecodeit staysactiveuntilyou

deactivateit. That’swhathappensin line40 of our programabove.All

subsequenttextwillbeitalicizeduntilyouchangeitbackto uprightagain.

10

Mostprogramminglanguages,andsomeversionsof BASIC,let youtreat

theprinterasa fileto whichyoucansenddata.Whenyouwriteaprogram

withoneoftheselanguagesyou“open”theprinterfile,printintoit,andthen

“close”thefilewhenyou’redone.Thisprogrammingjargonsoundsfunny

if you‘renotusedtoit—butit works.

Afewprogramminglanguagesletyousendcommandstotheprinterathird

way. Applesoft BASICis one. Withit, you can switchbetweenprinter

outputandscreenoutput.

Printer emulations

You noticedthat we said “in EX-800mode”up there?YourStar Laser-

Printer8respondstothesameescapesequencecommandsthatseveralother

printersuse.BeingabletoemulateprintersliketheDiabloorEpsonEX-800

letsyouuseyourStarLaserPrinter8witholderprogramsthathaven’tbeen

updatedtotakeadvantageoflaserprinters.Infact,becauseitemulatesfour

of themostpopularprinters,youcanusetheStarLaserPrinter8 withjust

aboutanymicrocomputerprogramaround.

Unfortunatelythose printers often use different escape sequencesfor

exactlythe same function.Thoseprinters,moreover,provideescapese-

quencesfor functionsthe Star LaserPrinter8 doesn’tneed,such as the

Diablo’sChangePrintwheelcommand.(Printwheels— sometimescalled

“daisywheels”- areflatmetalorplasticprintelementsthatholdcharacters

outfroma hubon “petals”.)Whenyourprintergetsacommanditdoesn’t

support,itjust ignoresthecommand.

Macrosaresinglecontrolcodesyoucandefineyourself,whichdothework

ofawholelongseriesofprintercommands.Ifyouareaprogrammeryouwill

behappyto heartheStarLaserPrinter8 supportsup to99 macrosatonce.

11

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