Laser Printer User Manual

o x 27 = o

1x 26 = 64

0x 25= o

x 24= o

1X 23 = 8

0x 2’ = o

1x 21 = 2

0x 2° = Q

74 Decimal

zone digits

0100 1010 Binary

4 A Hexadecimal

The ASCIItable in theTechnicalSupplementshowsall theseequivalent

~presentationsfor the symbolsyourlaser printerunderstands.The table

organizesthemin ascendingorder.Infact,ASCIIisorganizedina waythat

actuallymakessense.

Flipbacktherefor a quicklookrightnow.Seehowyoucanslicethetable

into clumpsof 16 or 32, based on what’s in the zone portionunder the

hexadecimalcolumn?Theseclumpsmakesubgroupsof similarsymbols:

● hex 00 to IF arethe commandsymbolscalledcontrolcodes,

● hex 20 to 40 arethe commonkeyboardsymbolsandnumerals,

● hex41 to 60 arecapitallettersandthelesscommonkeyboardsymbols,

● hex 61 to 7F arelowercaselettersanda few finalsymbols.

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 characters or IBM

charactergraphics.

1.2.3Controlcodes

TheASCIItableshowssymbolslikeJor2 thewaytheyactuallyprintonthe

laserprinter.ButASCIIincludesmorethanjust printablecharacters:none

of the controlcodecommandsatthebeginningof the table actuallyprint.

Instead,when your computersends a controlcode to the laser printerit

makesyourprinterdo otherthings,suchas sounditsbeeper.