Service manual

91
ASSIGNING A VALUE OF CHARACTER SPACE
Besides being able to specify the actual width of the character, this printer
allows you to specify the position in the standard grid where the character
will print. You must specify the dot column in which the printed character
starts and the dot column in which the character ends. Why, you may ask,
would you want to define a character this way instead of merely defining the
overall width of the character? Because this printer’s proportional character
definitions can also be used to print normal width characters, and by centering
even the narrow characters in the complete grid they will look good even if
you are not printing them proportionally.
The three bytes are used to specify the width of the character and the space
to be allowed on either side of it. The left space (in dot columns) is specified
by m0 and the right space is specified by m2. The second byte (m1) specifies
the width of the character in dots. By varying the width of the character itself
and the spaces around it, you can actually create proportional width characters.
When defining characters, the number of printed columns (m1), and the sum
of side spaces and the character width (m0 + m1 + m2) cannot exceed the
value shown below.
Character mode m1 m0 + m1 + m2
Draft characters 9 12
LQ pica characters 31 36
LQ elite characters 27 30
LQ semi-condensed 19 24
LQ proportional 37 42
Draft super/subscript 7 12
LQ super/subscript 19 36
LQ prop. super/subscript 37 42
SAMPLE PROGRAM
To demonstrate how to use the download characters, let’s use the “telephone”
chareacter and the other user-defined characters to print a small graph. This
program will do just that: