Star Micronics 4 User manual

80821860

APPLICATIONS MANUAL

Trademark Acknowledgements

LaserPrinter 4: StarMicronicsCo., Ltd.

PageMaker: AldusCorporation

BitStream, Zapf Humanist: BitstreamInc.

Canon: CanonInc.

HP, LaserJet ffP: Hewlett-PackardCompany

LaaerControl: InsightDcvelcpmentInc.

IBM PC: IntematicmalBusiness MachinesCorp.

Optim~ Century Schoolbook: LinotypeCorporation

Lotus 1-2-3: LotusDevelopmentCorporation

MS-DOS, Microsoft BASIC, Window%Word: Microsoftcorporation

MultiMate: Multimatcfntematicnal

Epson, FX-8SO:.%&o

f@s’I Corpusaticn

WordPerfect: WordPerfectCorporation

Ventura

Publisher:XeroxCorporation

NOTICE

● All rightsreserved.Reproductionof anypartof this msmsafin anyform whatsoeverwithout

STAR’s expresspermissicitis forbidden.

. ‘firecontentsof this manualarcsubjectto changewithoutnotice.

● Alf effortshavebeenmadeto ensuretheaccuracyof the contentsof thismanualatthetimeof

press.However,shouldanyerrorsbe detected,STAR wouldgrszdy appreciatebeing informed

of them.

● ‘llte abovenotwithstanding,STAR can assumeno responsibilityforanyerrorsin this manual.

@Ccpyright1990StarMicrunicsCo., Ltd.

PREFACE

Aboutthismanual

This StarLaserPrinter4 ApplicationsManual givesyou theinformation

youneedto programtheStarMicronicsLaserPrinter4.

Whywouldyoureadthisbook? Mostpeopleusingalaserprinterjust run

softwarepackageswithbuilt-inprinterdrivers,whichlookaftereverything

theircomputerssendtheirprinters.Butmanyofus- smallbusinesspeople

and home computerusers, not to mentionthe wizards who write those

softwarepackages—wanttobenefitfromallthenewfeaturesofferedbyour

pnntem.

Doyouwantcompletecontroloverthecharacte~andimagesyouprint?Do

youwantto makeyourStarLaserPrinter4 worklikesomeearlierkindof

printer? Thismanualprovidesthesoftwarehelpyouneedto getthemost

fromyourLaserPrinter4.

Thoughthis ApplicationsManual is reallyintendedfor intermediateto

advancedcomputerusers,we’vetriedtoaccommodaterelativenovicestoo.

The informationis organizedso youcan walkthroughthe generaltheory

underlyingprinterprogrammingbefore dancinginto specificdetails. It

makessense,therefore,to readthefirstthreechaptersbeforejumpinginto

themiddle.

There’sagoodreasontoreadeachchapterfromitsstarttoo.Peoplelearning

howtouseanew printeroftenfindtheterminologyabarrier. Soinsteadof

buryingwhatmaybenewjargonin aGlossaryattheback,wedefineeach

newtermthefirsttimeitappears.Thewholefirstpartofthechapteronfonts,

forexarnple,definesdifferentaspectsofafont (acollectionofcharactersof

the samesizeandstyle).

What’sin thismanual?

● In “Gettingto KnowYourStarLaserPrinter4“ weprovidea listof the

featuresthat make this a splendidprinter,to help you choose which

feahuesyou wantto exploit. There’sa bitonhowlaserprinterswork,

insideandout. The chapterthenexplainssoftwarein generalterms,in-

cluding how to write control and Escape commandsto make those

feahues work.

● “ControllingYour Printer” examines the parameters and “superset”

commandsyougivetheStarLaserPrinter4 to directpreciselyhowyou

wantittobehave.Theseletyoucontroltheprinter,managepageformats,

andspecifywhatyouwantprinted.

● Formostofus, the“Fonts”chapterwillbeuseful: howtousethefonts

built into the LaserPrinter4, plus those that come on cartridgesor

computerdisks.

● Youmay neverlookat chapters4 and5, whichcoverStarLaserPrinter

4 commands. YourLaserPnnter4 emulates otherprinters: it imitates

otherprintersby acceptingthesamecommandsthey do. Justthinkof

yourStarLaserPrinter4 as twoprintershidinginsideoneunit.

Ifyouwanttowriteormodifyaprogramthatusesoneoftheseprinters—

theHewlett-PackardLaserJet11PorEpsonFX-850- chapters4 and5

showhow yourStar LaserPrinter4 can emulateto accordingly. The

chaptersfirstdescribehowtocontroltheprinterandtoformatpages,then

howtqmovetheprintposition,andfinallyhowtousefontsandgraphics.

The chapteron the LaserJetIIP is longer and mom detailedthan the

others.That’sbecauseyouaremomlikelytouselaserprintercommands

thancommandsfordotmatnx printers. (If youhavesoftwa~ designed

only for dot matrixprinters,you may havemanualsfor thoseprinters

anyway.) We recommendyou use LaserJetHP emulationwhenever

possible,withFX-850emulationas yourbackupmode.

c Thefinal“TechnicalSupplement”containingthecommandandcharac-

ter mfextmcetableswillprobablygetthumbedthemost.

Conventions

Incidentally,oneofthoseTechnicalSupplementtablessuggestsacoupleof

typographicconventionswe’lluse.Baseten(decimal)numberswillgener-

allybe usedhere;if we haveto use basesixteennumbers(hexadecimal)

we’llexpresslysayso.

Andsecond,thelowercaseLispracticallyidenticaltothenumberone(1ver-

sus 1). BecauselowercaseL isusedinmanycommanddescriptions,we’ll

usethe character/to avoidconfusion.

TheStarLaserPrinter4 OperationsManual

ThismanualisthecompaniontotheStarLaserPrin?er4OperatwnsiWanuaZ

thatcamewithyourprinter. Alaserprinteris a fairlycomplextoolthatre-

quirescareanddelicatehandling.SotousethisApplicationsl14anualbest,

makesureyouunderstandthatOperationsManual first.

Your OperationsManual holds essentialinformationaboutthe Laser-

Printer4, suchashowto:

●

✎

●

unpackandsetup yourlaserprinter,

connecttheStarLaserPrinter4 toyourcomputer’sserialorparallelport,

linkthe LaserPrinter4 intoanetworkof severalcomputers,

configuretheLaserPrinter4 toyourneeds(withvariablessuchaspaper

sizeand speedof datatransfer),

loadpaperandthetonercartridge,

operatethepanelswitchesanddisplay,

runthe LaserPrinter4 self-test,

lookafteryourprinterto keepit in peakcondition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER1 GETTINGTOKNOWYOURSTAR

LASERPRINTER4

1

1.1StarLaserPrinter4 Hardware...........................................................1

1.2StarLaserPrinter4 Software........................................................-5

CHAPTER2 CONTROLLINGYOURPRINTER

13

2.1PrinterParameters....................................................................O.....13

2.2ControllingthePrinter

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

16

2.3ControllingthePage.......................................................................20

2.4ControllingthePrinting

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

25

2.5TheStarLaserPrinter4 SuWmet...................................................26

CHAPTER3 FONTS

31

3.1FontTerminology

...........................................................................31

3.2HowtheStarLaserPrinter4StoresFonts

......................................34

3.3SymbolSets

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

37

3.4ManagingFonts..............................................................................49

CHAPTER4 HPLASERJETIIP COMMANDS

45

4.1HPLaserJetIIPCommands...........................................................45

4.2ControllingthePrinter

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

47

4.3PageOrientation.............................................................................50

4.4MovingthePrintPosition

..............................................................54

4.5ControllingFonts............................................................................63

4.6UsingYourOwnFonts......:............................................................79

4.7Graphics..........................................................................................83

4.8Macros............................................................................................88

CHAPTER5 EPSONFX-850COMMANDS

93

5.1FX-850Commands........................................................................93

5.2ControllingthePrinter

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

95

5.3FormattingPages...........................................................................-96

5.4MovingthePrintPosition

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

99

5.5ControllingFonts..........................................................................104

5.6Graphics

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

113

CHAPTER6 TECHNICALSUPPLEMENT

119

6.1Commandsummary.....................................................................120

6.2SymbolWK...................................................................................125

INDEX

15’7

Gettingto Know Your ‘” “

Star LaserPrinter

4

T& chapterintroducesboththehardwareandsoftwareaspectsoftheStar

LaserPrinter4’s personality,from fonts and print engineto ASCII and

Escapesequences.

1.1STARLASERPRINTER4 HARDWARE

1.1.1Versatility

YourStarMicronicsStarLaserPrinter4workswithpracticallyallcommer-

cialsoftwareprogramsandcomputers.WithfeaturesthatgobeyondStar’s

easy,affordable9-pinandfast,quality-printing24-pindotmatrixprinters

the Star Laser Printeris the logicalnext step in the series of fine Star

Micronicsprintem.

YourStarLaserPrinter4 producespagesthatlookclosetotypesetquality,

withupto 90,000dotspersquareinch—nomoreNLQ(nearletterquality)

compromises.The Star LaserPrinter4 producesfour of those pages a

minute.Thesenumberstranslateto aboutfivetimesmore resolutionand

aboutthreetimesmorespeedthantheaveragedot-matrixprinter.

Star’snewprinteris~markablyversatile.Youcanprintcomplicatedforms

(widthwiseif you want)... detailedgraphs... yourown customizedtype-

styles... digitizedphotographs...

otherlanguages(includingArabicand

Japanese).

Youcan even printyourletterheadandlogo as youprintyourletter,and

reprintthem directlyonto a businessenvelope.You don’teven need to

removethepapertraytoprinttheenvelope:justslideitintothemanualfeed

slot.

1

TheStarLaserPrinter4isidealfordesktoppublishing.Thepagesitproduces

makeperfectphotocopyorinstant-printmasters.Andallthemaindesktop

publishingsystems,includingAldusCorporation’sPageMaker andXerox

VenturaPubisher,worksplendidlywiththeStarLaserPrinter4.With“page

makeup”programsliketheseyouwillbe able—maybeforthefirsttime—

to delivercommunicationswiththeimpactoftop-notchgraphics.

1.1.2Fontoptions

Youcan print withanamazinglywidevarietyoftypefontsandsizes.The

StarLaserPrinter4 comeswithsevenbuilt-infonts,whichcanbe printed

from 8.5pointsto 12pointsin size(apointis about1/72of aninch).

Thesefontsare:

Courier

12point Medium

Courier 12point Bold

Courier

12point Italic

Courier 1Opoint

Medium

Courier

1Opoint Bold

Courier

1Opoint Italic

LinePrinter 8.5point Medium

Besidesthese,youmaybe abletouseoptionalcartridgesanddisksto give

yourStarLaserPrinter4 a varietyof extrafonts,suchasthese:

Helvet

linedrawing

LetterGothic presentationfonts

Barcodes

opticalcharacterreaderfontsuniversalproductcode

You can load your Star LaserPrinter4’s memory with fonts stored on

computerdisks.Literallyhundredsof fontsare marketedby font-supply

companies.Somefontsareevenobtainablefromcomputer’’usergroups”or

“electronicbulletinboards”.Fontsyougetthiswayareinthepublicdomain,

whichmeansyoudon’tneedto paya licencefeetousethem.

Ask your Star LaserPrinter4 dealeraboutresourceslike these.Desktop

publishingwith laser printemis fast-changingterritory,and some Star

Micronicsstaffpeoplehavefoundelectronicbulletinboardsandcomputer

usergroupsquitehelpfulinkeepingupwiththechangingpace.Ifyouinvest

a littletimethiswayit mayrepayyouwell.

2

1.2.3HowyourIaserprinter communicates

YourcomputercommunicateswiththeStarLaserPrinter4 througheither

apardef cableoroneoftwokindsofserialcable.Theprinter’sinterjzce,

the link or boundaryit shareswith yourcomputer,defineswhetherthe

printerwillacceptcharactersandcommandsfromyourcomputeronebyte

or onebit at a time.

Abitisthesmallestunitofcomputerorprintermemory.Ithaseitheralow

orhighelectriccharge,whichwerepresentwiththedigitsOand1.Usually

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

representsonecharacter,thisstringofbits- O1OOOOO1—mightrepresent

theletterA.

The serialinterfaceacceptsjust onebit at a timefromyourcomputer.A

parallelinterfacecanhandleawholebyteatonce,bymovingdatabitsside-

by-sidealongseparatewires.Youchoosewhichinterfacemethodyouwant

touseby selectingitonthecontrolpanel,asexplainedin yourStarLuser-

Printer4 OperationsManual.

1.2.4TheStarLaserPrinter4 is a computer

TheStarLaserPrinter4 firstmapsthecharactemto beprintedintoitsown

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

memorycorrespondingtothepageyouwanttoprint.Whenthat’sdonethe

printercanreproducethepageontopaperonitsown,lettingyourcomputer

geton withotherwork.

YourStarLaserPrinter4 comeswithonemegabyteofRAM—theequiva-

lentof aboutonemillioncharacters.A StarLaserPrinter4 optionlets you

addasecondmegabyteofRAMif,say,youneedtomapfull-pagegraphics

orstemmorefonts. AccompanyingallthatRAMis another512kilobytes

ofreadonlymemory(ROM),containingalibraryofinternalfontsandthe

programsthatletthe StarLaserPrinter4 emulateotherprinters.

An Intel 80960KAcomputerchip controls both the memory and the

printingmechanisminthepnnter,calledtheprintengine.Theprinterstores

a wholepage in RAM beforeprintingit. (If a page is so dense that it

overflowsmemory-a mostunlikelyevent—theStarLaserPrinter4prints

thepageontwo sheets.)

3

I

1.2.5ThePrintengine

It’s the print enginethat-formsthe actualcharactersand graphics.The

enginedirectsitslaser,apinpointstreamoflightpulses,throughmirrorsand

lensesontothesurfaceof a positively-chargedrotatingdrum.

+

Mirror

Lens

Laserbeam

~%a~nirr~ mirror

nductor laser diode

Photosensitive drum

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

Whereveralightpulsestrikes,thattinypartof thedrumdropsto aneutral

electricalcharge.That spot then attractsfine toner powderas the drum

rotatespastthepowdercompartment.

Asthedrumrotatesfurtheritmeetsthepaper.Thepaperitselfisnegatively

chargedbypassingbyafinecoronawire.Sinceoppositechargesattract,the

negativepaperclingsto thepositivedrum.Thenheatandpressurefroma

rollermeltor~usethedotsoftonerontothepaper,preciselyreproducingthe

image.

Finallythepaperslidesintotheoutputbin.Thepaperusuallycomesoutface

downso it stacksin thecorrectsequence.

4

1.2STARLASERPRINTER4 SOFTWARE

1.2.1Binaryandhexadecimalarithmetic

1fyou 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.Eachhigherpositionisworthtentimesmore

thanthepositiontotherightofit,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)- toshowthevaluesthatmaybe inany

position.So inbinarywegetnumbersthatlooklike 1O1Oor 10001100.

Thehexadecimalsystemismadeofbase-sixteennumbers.Hexadecimalis

positionalliketheothercountingsystems.Andeachhigherpositionisworth

sixteentimesasmuchasthepositionto itsright.

We need sixteendifferentsymbolsto show all the possiblevalues one

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

symbols,butwe’vehadto borrowa fewmorefromouralphabetto getall

thesymbolsweneed.Inhexadecimal,therefore,youcanhaveanumberthat

lookslike2C7C,or evenFACE.

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

1000

1001

1010

1o11

11(X)

1101

1110

1111

Hexadecimal

8

9

A

B

c

D

E

F

5

Theimportantthingtorealizeisthatthere’smorethanonewayto showthe

samenumericvalue.Computerprogrammers,forexample,occasionallyuse

thehexadecimalsystembecauseit’sso compact.(Programmersoftenjust

say“hex”.)Thisbinarynumber:

10100101111111010011011111101101OO1O11O1OOOO1OO1

looksquiteabittidierwhenitiswrittenasA5FD37ED2D09,whichmeans

thesamething.

1.2.2TheASCIItable

Wheredoesthe Star LaserPrinter4 get the charactersand instructionsit

needsto printin the firstplace’?It getsthemfmm yourcomputer,which

sendsa streamof textandcommandsto yourprinter.

Theprogramin yourcomputerthatcontrolseverythingsentto theprinter

(calledthe printer driver) will usuallybe includedwith your computer

programs;suchasyourwordprocessor.Butthecommandscouldalsocome

fromaprogramyou’vewritten,perhapsinBASIC,aprogramminglanguage

thatusescommonEnglishwords.

Internally,computemand printersuse onlythe binarynumbersystemto

representboth commandsand all the alphabetic,numericand otherkey-

boardsymbols.Nearlyallof thosemachinesusethesameschemetocode

thosesymbols,theAmericanStandardsCodeforInformationInterchange

(ASCII).

Anexample:inourfamiliardecimalsystem,binary01001010addsuptothe

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

interpretthatbinarystring01001010aseitherthenumber74orthesymbol

J. The printerstoresthesymbolJ atposition74in atablein itsmemory.

Thateight-bitbinarystring,orbyte,canbebrokenintotwohalves.Theleft

orhigh-orderpartcontaining0100is calledthezoneportion;the rightpart

holdingthe1010iscalledthedigitsportion.Andinthehexadecimalnumber

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

respectively(lookthemup in thelistabove).

SothelaserprinterunderstandsthesymbolJ as 01001010,whichwecan

also representas the decimalnumber74 or the hexadecimalnumber4A.

We’veprintedthisbyteverticallyandhorizontallybelow,showinghowit

addsup to decimal74 andhex4A.

6

o x 27 = o

1x 26 = 64

0x25= o

0

x24 = o

1X 23 = 8

0x2’ = o

1x21 = 2

0x2° = Q

74 Decimal

zone digits

0100 1010 Binary

4 A Hexadecimal

The ASCIItablein theTechnicalSupplementshowsall theseequivalent

~presentationsfor the symbolsyourlaserprinterunderstands.The table

organizestheminascendingorder.Infact,ASCIIisorganizedinawaythat

actuallymakessense.

Flipbacktherefora quicklookrightnow.Seehowyoucanslicethetable

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

hexadecimalcolumn?Theseclumpsmakesubgroupsof similarsymbols:

● hex00 to IF arethecommandsymbolscalledcontrolcodes,

● hex20 to40 arethecommonkeyboardsymbolsandnumerals,

● hex41 to 60 arecapitallettersandthelesscommonkeyboardsymbols,

● hex61to 7Farelowercaselettersanda fewfinalsymbols.

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

cofnputerand printer manufacturertreats the second half of the table

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

foreignlanguagecharactemintopositions128-255(oftenreferredtoashigh

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

charactergraphics.

1.2.3Controlcodes

TheASCIItableshowssymbolslikeJor2 thewaytheyactuallyprintonthe

laserprinter.ButASCIIincludesmorethanjustprintablecharacters:none

of thecontrolcodecommandsatthebeginningof thetableactuallyprint.

Instead,when your computersendsa controlcode to the laser printerit

makesyourprinterdo otherthings,suchas sounditsbeeper.

7

Controlcodesmostlyhandlecommunicationsbetweenyourcomputerand

theprinteratthelowestlevel,atcablelevel.Forexample,acoupleofcontrol

codesmakesuretheprinterbuffer(yourprinter’sstoragememory)doesn’t

overflow.In this book we’ll indicate control codes enclosedby angle

bracketsto their abbreviationsin the table:=&I%-meansthe Form Feed

controlcode,whichadvancestheprintertothenextpagejustasthePRINT

button.does.

1.2.4Escapesequences

Controlcode 27, cESG or Escape,is a particularlyimportantone for

printers.Totellyourprinterallthethingsyoumightneed- settingmargins,

sayingwhereto print,choosinga particularfont,startinggraphicsand so

on- requiresmanymorethanjusttwoorthreedozencontrolcodes.Sothe

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

characterspecifiesacommand,notsomethingto beprinted”.

Thereforeif yousendjust thecharacter4 totheprinteritwillprinta4 and

that’sall. Butif yousendthecESC>codejustbeforethe4 thentheprinter

(in FX-850 mode)will switchoverto italicstext.Extendingthe control

codesthiswaygivesyoumanymorecommandsto controlyourprinter.In

fact,these“Escapesequences”makeupmostoftheStarLaserPrinter’skm-

guage.

In thisbookwe’llleavespacesbetweencharacterswhenweshowescape

sequences.You’llfind

<ESC>

(S@ IOh12vos 3T

abit morereadablethan

<ESC>(sOp10h12vOs3T

Butrememberthatyouarenotto sendthosespacesifyousendcommands

to theprinter.

To sumup,printercommandsareoftwotypes.A controlcodeis asingle-

charactercommandthattellsyourprintertodosomething,likemovedown

oneline.AnEscapesequencecontrolsaprinteroperationtoo,butis more

thanonecharacterlong.Sincetheyarecommands,neithercontrolcodesnor

escapesequencesareusuallyprintablecharacter.

8

1.2.5Printerdrivers

Mostsoftwarepackagesahvadyincludetheprintercommandstheyneed.

Theprogramsthatsendcommandstotheprintersoyoudon’thavetoenter

themyourselfa~ calledprinter drivers.

Manyprogramsaskyouto installor configureyourprinter,whichusually

meanskeyingintoamenutheparticularsetupinformationdescribingyour

StarLaserPrinter4.Youentersuchthingsas howyouwant to underline,

alterlinespacing,or moveto a newprintposition.

Someprograms,suchas WordPerfectandthesystemsfromLotusDevel-

opmentCorporation,let youputprinterEscapesequencesbeforeor right

insidethedocumentyouwanttoprint.Toturnonboldface,forexample,you

mightholddownspecialkeysonyourkeyboard,oftenlabelledCONTROL

orALT,asyoupressanotherkey.OryoumightuseaspecialFunctionkey,

suchas F6.

In fact,totakerealadvantageofyourStarLaserPrinter4’sspecialabilities,

youmightoptforawordpmcessorthatletsyouspecifyfontchangeseasily.

WordPerfectandMicrosoftWord a~ strongatthis,butarebynomeansthe

onlygoodfontmanipulator.

If youhavetroubleusinga particularprogramwithyourStarLaserPrinter

4, you’ll probably get answers most quickly by asking your software

supplierhowtheprograminteractswithyourprinter.

Inthismanualwerefertoprograms,fontsandotherproductssoldbyseveral

companies.PleasemalizethatmentioningtheseproductsdoesnotmeanStar

Micronicsendomesthemin any way.

1.2.6Sendingyourownprintercommands

Withouta printerdriver,sendingcontrolcodesand Escapesequencesto

yourprinterproperlyrequiressomeknowledgeofaprogramminglanguage

likeBASIC!or Pascal,or atleastofhowtoputsuchcodesintoa program.

Withprogramminglanguages,thecomputerdoesn’tacton thecommands

youputinto a programuntilyoutellitto runthatprogram.

Whenyou givea commandto theprinterfroma computerprogram,you

normallyentereachpartofthecommandasaseparatecharacter.Thisway

. youdon’taffectanythingelsehappeningonthecomputer.Youoftensend

eachcodeorcharacterinthecommandbygivingitspositionin theASCII

table,as adecimalor hexnumber.

9

1.2.7A BASICexample

Here’sanexampleyoucantypeinrightnow,to clarifywhatwe’resaying.

It’s written in MicrosoftBASICfor a computerthat uses the MS-DOS

operatingsystem,soif youhavea differentcomputeror BASICyoumay

havetotranslateabit.We’llshowcommandsthewaythey’rewrittenforan

Epsondot-matrixprinterbecauseyourStarLaserPrinter4understandsthose

commands.

TheLPRINTcommandsallsenddatatotheprinter.Ifthedataissomething

youwantprintedyoujust putit in quotationmarks.If thedatais acontrol

codeyoujustsaywhexeitisintheASCIItable,givingitspositionasaregular

decimalnumber.

BASICusuallysendsacarriagereturnafterevery80character, tokeepthe

print positionmovingwhenit hitstheendof a line.Unasked-forcarriage

returnscanmessupyourprinting,however,so it’sa goodhabitto putin a

WIDTHstatementas shown.Thatletsus printoverthewholepagearea.

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

ThecESG codeitselfisCHR$(27).Andbecausewe’reusingthecharacter

4 aspartof an cESC>command,wetypeCHR$(52)insteadof“4”.

So if youstartBASICandtypethesecommands:

NEW

10 ‘ EXAMPLE

20 WIDTH “LPT1:“,255

30 LPRINTCHR$(7)

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

50 LPRINT“ITALICS!“

60 END

RUN

youmaketheprinter(inFX-850mode)firstsounditsbell-most peoplecall

it a beeper—andthenprinttheline:

ITALICS!

Generally,whenyousendacontrolorEscapecodeitstaysactiveuntilyou

deactivateit. That’swhathappensin line40 of our programabove.All

subsequenttextwillbe italicizeduntilyouchangeitbacktouprightagain.

10

1

Mostprogramminglanguages,andsomeversionsof BASIC,let youtreat

theprinterasa fileto whichyoucansenddata.Whenyouwriteaprogram

withoneoftheselanguagesyou“open”theprinterfile,printintoit,andthen

“close”thefilewhenyou’redone.Thisprogrammingjargonsoundsfunny

if you’renotusedto it—butit works.

Afewprogramminglanguagesletyousendcommandstotheprinterathird

way. Applesoft BASICis one. Withit, you can switchbetweenprinter

outputandscreenoutput.

1.2.8Printeremulations

You noticedthat we said“in FX-850mode”up there?YourStarLaser-

Printer4respondstothesameescapesequencecommandsthatseveraloiher

printemuse.BeingabletoemulateprintersliketheEpsonFX-850letsyou

useyourStarLaserPrinter4witholderprogramsthathaven’tbeenupdated

to takeadvantageof laserprinters.In fact,becauseit emulatestwo of the

mostpopularprinters,youcanusetheStarLaserPrinter4withjustaboutany

microcomputerprogramaround.

Unfortunatelythose printers often use different escape sequences for

exactlythe samefunction.Thoseprinters,moreover,provideescapese-

quencesfor functionsthe Star LaserPrinter4 doesn’tneed, such as the

Epson’s Half-SpeedCommand.When your printer gets a command it

doesn’tsupport,itjust ignoresthecommand.

Macrosaresinglecontrolcodesyoucandefineyourself,whichdothework

ofawholelongseriesofprintercommands.Ifyouareaprogrammeryouwill

behappyto heartheStarLaserPrinter4 supportsup to99macrosatonce.

11

MEMO

12

Controlling

YourPrinter

YoucancontrolyourStarLaserPrinter4intwoways,eitherthmughcontrol

panelparameters or throughsoftwarecomrnana!s.In thischapterwe will

considerprintercontrolsmostlyfromtheperspectiveofthecontrolpanel.

However,we’llalsomeetfourspecialcommands,the StarLaserPrinter4

superset.

Throughoutthismanualweapproachparametersandcommandsthesame

way:overallprinter-levelcontrolsficst,thenpage-levelcontrols(layoutand

printpositionmovements),andfinallycharacter-levelcontrols(fontsand

graphics).We’lldiscusstheseingeneraltermsin thischapter.

Thespecificcommandsyoucansendto yourprintertomakeit emulate,or

work like, other printers are describedin chapters4 and 5. The most

importantfact aboutprintercommands,though,is thatyoumaynoteven

needto knowhowtousethem.If yoursoftwaresystemsincludetheirown

printer drivers, you may want to read only this chapter and skip all of

chaptem4 and5.

2.1 PRINTERPARAMETERS

2.1.1 Thecontrolpanel

The easiestwayto controlyourStarLaserPrinter4 is throughits control

panel,asexplainedin moredetailin yourStarLzserl%nter 4 Operations

Manual.

Whenyourprinteris online(connectedto and underthe controlof your

computer),its controlpanel displayshowsyou the printer’sstatus.For

example,the READYlightblinkswhen the printeris warmingup. The

DATAlightcomesonwhenevertheprinterisholdingdataithasn’tprinted

yet.

Whenyoupressthe[ONLINE]button,theprinterchangesfmmnormalto

ofline modeandcannotacceptdatafromyourcomputer.Whentheprinter

isofflineyoucanusetheotherpanelbuttons.Forinstance,if youpressthe

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[TEST/>]buttonforthrecsecondhandreleaseitjustafterSTATUSSHEET

isdisplayedwhenthelaserprinterisoffline,itfinishesprintingthecurrent

pageandthenfeedsin andprintsa statussheet.

Somebuttonson thepanellet youperformtwofunctions.Holdingone of

those buttons down, rather than quickly pressing it, selects a different

operation.For example,holdingdown the [TEST/>]buttonfor over six

secondsafterSTATUSSHEETisdisplayedmakestheStarLaserPrinter4

printitstestpattern.

2.1.2 Parametersettings

Fromthe panelyoucan alsochangethepararnetemthatdefinehow your

printerworks.Parameterjust means“variable”. If you’refamiliarwith

earlier kinds of pnntem, you’llunderstandthat laser printerparameters

controlpn%ymuchthesamethingsDIPswitchesdo.(ADIPswitchor’’dual

in-linepackageswitch”isasetofsmallswitchesthatcontrolvariousprinter

functions.)

Theprinterstorestheseparametemaseasy-to-useprogrammenuitemsthat

youcan selectfromthecontrolpanel.Theseparametemspecify:

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●

9

●

emulation(whatprinterthe StarLaserPrinteremulates)

numberof copies(thenumberof copiesof eachpageto beprinted)

character(whatcharacterfontto print)

job size(whatsizeof papertheprinterwilluse)

layout(howpageswillbe formatted)

paperfeed(howpaperwillbe fed)

page,mode(partialor full)

interface(howtheprintercommunicateswithyourcomputer)

Ad@auZtisthesettingtheStarLaserPrinter4willuseifnoneisspecifically

selectedbyaprogram.Whenyoufirsttumonorlaterresetyourprinterthese

defaultsettingswilltakeeffect.

Yourmainuseforthecontrolpanelwilllikelybeto setthedefaultsettings

youwantfor theseparameters.However,youwillprobablyfmd thepanel

convenienttoo whenyou wantto switchbetweenmanualand automatic

paperfeed.

2.1.3 Four versionsofparameters

TheStarLaserPrinter4 actuallystoresfourversionsof theseparametem:

s its “ultimatedefault”factorysettings,

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Star Micronics 4 User manual

Star Micronics 4 User manual

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