Star Micronics 8 Series Instructions for use

L8
Series
AM

8
Series
Applications Manual

Trademark Acknowledgements
LaserPrinter 8: StarMicronicsCo., Ltd.
PageMaker: Aldus CqSOraticsr
Apple II +, Applesoft: AppleComputerInc.
BitStream,~apf Humanist: BitstreamInc.
Canon: CanonInc.
Centronics: CentronicsData Computer Corporation
HP, LaserJet Series H: Hewlett-PackardCompany
LaserControl: InsightDevelopmentfrrc.
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,adivision 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.
@Copyright 1989Star Micrcstics Co., Ltd.

PREFACE
About this manual
ThisSrarLuserPrinter8ApplicationsManual 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 makeyourStarLaserPrinter8worklikesomeearlierkindof
printer? Thismanualprovidesthesoftwarehelpyouneedto getthemost
fromyourLaserPrinter8.
Thoughthis ApplicationsManual 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“weprovidealistof the
featuresthat make this asplendidprinter,to help you choosewhich
featuresyouwantto exploit. There’sabit on howlaserprinterswork,
insideandout. Thechapterthenexplainssoftwarein generalterms,in-
cluding how to write control and Escape commandsto make those
featureswork.
“ControllingYour Printer” examines the parameters and “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 chapters4through7,
which cover Star LaserPrinter8commands. Your LaserPrinter8
emulatesotherprintem:itimitatesotherpnntembyacceptingthesame
commandstheydo. JustthinkofyourStarLaserPrinter8asfourprinters
hidinginsideoneunit.
Ifyouwanttowriteormodifyaprogramthatusesoneoftheseprinters—
theHewlett-PackardLaserJetseriesII,EpsonEX-800,IBMProprinteror
XeroxDiablo630- chapters4through7showhow yourStarLaser-
Printer8canemulateto 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 printers anyway.) We recommendyou use
LaserJetseriesII emulationwheneverpossible,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). BecauselowercaseLisusedinmanycommanddescriptions,we’ll
usethecharactert’toavoidconfusion.
The Star LaserPrinter 8Operations Manual
ThismanualisthecompaniontotheStarLaserPrinter8OperationsManual
thatcamewithyourprinter.Alaserprinterisafairlycomplextoolthatre-
quirescareanddelicatehandling.SotousethisApplicationsManual best,
makesureyouunderstandthatOperationsManual first.
Your OperationsManual holds essentialinformationabout the Lascr-
Pnnter,8,suchashowto:
●unpackandsetup yourlaserprinter,
●connecttheStarLaserPrinter8toyourcomputer’sserialorparallelport,
●iinktheLaserPrinter8intoanetworkof severalcomputers,
●configuretheLaserPrinter8to yourneeds(wilhvanablcssuchaspaper
sizeandspeedof datatransfer),
●loadpaperandthetonercartridge,
●operatethepanelswitchesanddisplay,
●runthe LaserPrinter8self-test,
●lookafteryourprinterto keepit in peakcondition.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1GETTING TO KNOW YOUR STAR
LASERPRINTER 81
StarLaserPrinter8Hardware.................................................................1
StarLaserPrinter8Software..................................................................5
CHAPTER 2CONTROLLING YOUR PRINTER 13
PrinterParameters................................................................................13
ControllingthePrinter..........................................................................16
ControllingthePage.............................................................................21
ControllingthePrinting........................................................................28
TheStarLaserPrinter8Superset.........................................................29
CHAPTER 3FONTS 35
FontTerminology.................................................................................35
HowtheStarLaserPrinter8StoresFonts............................................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 5EPSON EX-800 COMMANDS 99
EX-800Commands..............................................................................99
ControllingthePrinter........................................................................101
FormattingPages................................................................................102
MovingthePrintPosition............... ...................................................105
ControllingFonts................................................................................110
Graphics.............................................................................................119

CHAPTER 6IBM PROPRINTER COMMANDS 125
ProprinterCommands.........................................................................125
ControllingthePrinter........................................................................126
FormattingPages................................................................................127
MovingthePrintPosition...................................................................127
ControllingFonts................................................................................13(J
Graphics..............................................................................................133
CHAPTER 7XEROX DIABLO630COMMANDS 135
DiabloCommands..............................................................................135
ControllingthePrinter........................................................................136
FormattingPages................................................................................137
MovingthePrintPosition...................................................................140
ControllingFonts................................................................................145
Graphics..............................................................................................l~g
CHAPTER 8TECHNICAL SUPPLEMENT 153
Commandsummary...........................................................................154
Symbolsets ........................................................................................162
INDEX 213

ThischapterintroducesboththehardwareandsoftwareaspectsoftheStar
LaserPrinter8’s personality,from fonts and print engineto ASCII and
Escapesequences.
STAR LASERPRINTER 8HARDWARE
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 8produces pages that look close to typeset quality,
with up to 90,000 dotsper square inch— no more NLQ (near letter quality)
compromises. The Star LaserPrinter8produceseight of those pages a
minute,Thesenumberstranslateto aboutfivetimesmore resolutionand
speedthantheaveragedot-matrixprinter.
Star’snewprinterisremarkablyversatile.Youcanprintcomplicatedforms
(widthwiseif you want)... detailedgraphs... yourown customizedtype-
styles... digitizedphotographs... otherlanguages(includingArabicand
Japanese).
Youcan evenprintyourletterheadandlogo as youprintyourletter,and
reprintthem directlyonto abusinessenvelope.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 delivercommunicationswiththe impactof 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 intar
Besidesfiese, youmaybe abletouseoptionalcartridgesanddisksto give
yourStarL&serPnnter8avarietyof 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 pay alicencefeeto usethem.
Ask your Star LaserPrinter8dealeraboutresourceslike these. Desktop
publishingwith laser printers is fast-changingterritory, and some Star
Micronicsstaffpeoplehavefoundelectronicbulletinboardsandcomputer
usergroupsquitehelpfulinkeepingupwiththechangingpace.Ifyouinvest
alittletimethiswayit mayrepayyou’well.
2

How your Iaserprinter communicates
YourcomputercommunicateswiththeStarLaserPrinter8througheithera
parallelcableor oneof twokindsof 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 abyte. Since abyte normally
representsonecharacter,thisstringofbits- O1OOOOO—mightrepresent
theletterA.
The serialinterfaceacceptsjust one bit at atime fromyourcomputer.A
parallelinterfacecanhandleawholebyteatonce,bymovingdatabitsside-
by-sidealongseparatewires.Youchoosewhichinterfacemethodyouwant
to use by selectingit on the operatorpanel, as explainedin your Star
LaserPrinter8OperationsManual.
The Star LaserPrinter 8is acomputer
TheStarLaserPrinter8firstmapsthecharactersto beprintedintoitsown
randomaccessmemory(RAM).Thatis,theprinterbuildsa“picture”inits
memorycorrespondingtothepageyouwanttoprint.Whenthat’sdonethe
pnntercanreproducethepageontopaperonitsown,lettingyourcomputer
geton’withotherwork.
YourStarLaserPrinter8comeswithonemegabyteofRAM—theequiva-
lentof aboutonemillioncharacters.AStarLaserPrinter8optionletsyou
addasecondmegabyteofRAMif,say,youneedtomapfull-pagegraphics
orstoremorefonts. AccompanyingallthatRAMis another512kilobytes
ofreadonlymemory(ROM),containingalibraryofinternalfontsandthe
programsthatlettheStarLaserPrinter8emulateotherprinters.
AMotorola68000computerchipcontrolsboththememoryandtheprinting
mechanismintheprinter,calledtheprintengine.Theprintcrstoresawhole
pagein RAM beforeprintingit. (If apageis so densethat it overflows
memory-a mostunlikelyevent—theStarLaserPrinter8printsthepageon
two sheets.)
3

The Print engine
It’s tie print enginethat forms the actualcharactersand graphics.The
enginedirectsitslaser,apinpointstreamoflightpulses,throughmirrorsand
lensesontothe surfaceof apositively-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 it stacksin thecorrectsequence.
4

STAR LASERPRINTER 8SOFTWARE
Binary and hexadecimal arithmetic
If you alreadyknow what hexadecimalnumbersare, you can skip this
sectionandgo aheadto readaboutASCII.
The decimalnumbersystemwithwhichwe’reall familiaris apositional
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’vehadtoborrowafewmorefromour alphabetto 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
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 so compact.(Programmersoftenjust
say“hex”.)Thisbinarynumber:
101001011111110100110111111011010010110100001001
looksquiteabittidierwhenitiswrittenasA5FD37ED2D09,whichmeans
thesamething.
TheASCII table
Wheredoes the Star LaserPrinter8get the charactersand instructionsit
needsto print in the firstplace?It getsthemfromyourcomputer,which
sendsastreamof textandcommandsto yourprinter.
Theprogramin yourcomputerthatcontrolseverythingsentto theprinter
(calledthe printer driver) will usuallybe includedwith your computer
programsrsuchasyourwordprocessor.Butthecommandscouldalsocome
fromaprogramyou’vewritten,perhapsinBASIC,aprogramminglanguage
thatusescommonEnglishwords.
Internally,computemand printersuse only the binarynumbersystemto
representboth commandsand all the alphabetic,numericand otherkey-
boardsymbols.Nearlyallof thosemachinesusethesameschemeto code
thosesymbols,theAmericanStandardsCodefor InformationInterchange
(ASCII). ‘
Anexample:inourfamiliardecimalsystem,binary01001010addsuptothe
number 74. Dependingon which program your printer is using, it can
interpretthatbinarystring01001010aseitherthenumber74orthesymbol
J. TheprinterstoresthesymbolJatposition74in atablein itsmemory.
Thateight-bitbinarystring,orbyte,canbebrokenintotwohalves.Theleft
orhigh-orderpartcontaining0100is calledthezoneportion;therightpart
holdingthe1010iscalledthedigitspdion. Andinthehexadecimalnumber
system,the zone and digitparts of that byte are representedas 4and A
respectively(lookthemup in thelist above).
SothelaserprinterunderstandsthesymbolJas01001010,whichwecan
alsorepresentas the decimalnumber74 or the hexadecimalnumber4A.
We’veprintedthisbyteverticallyandhorizontallybelow,showinghowit
addsup to decimal74 andhex4A.
6

o x 27
1x 26
0x25
0x24
1x 23
0x22
1x 2’
ox2°
zone
0100
4
=o
=64
=o
no
=8
=0
=2
=Q
74 Decimal
digits
1010 Binary
AHexadecimal
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 60 arecapitallettersandthelesscommonkeyboardsymbols,
●hex’61to 7F arelowercaselettersandafewfinalsymbols.
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 avariety of accented
foreignlanguagecharactersintopositions128-255(oftenreferredtoashigh
ASCII). Epson gives you achoice of either italics charactersor IBM
charactergraphics.
Control codes
TheASCIItableshowssymbolslikeJor2 thewaytheyactuallyprintonthe
laserprinter.ButASCIIincludesmorethanjust printablecharacters:none
of thecontrolcodecommandsat thebeginningof thetableactuallyprint.
Instead,when your computersendsacontrolcode 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 aparticularlyimportantone for
printers.Totellyourprinterallthe thingsyoumightneed— settingmargins,
saying where to print, choosing aparticular font, starting graphics and so
on— requires many more thanjust two or three dozen control codes. So the
<ESC> control code has aspecial meaning: <ESC> means “the next
character specifies acommand, not something to be printed”.
Thereforeif yousendjust thecharacter4totheprinterit willprinta4and
that’sall. 13utifyousendthe<ESC>codejustbeforethe4thentheprinter
(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
abitmorereadablethan
<ESC>(sOp10h12vOs3T
Butrememberthatyouarenottosendthosespacesifyousendcommands
to theprinter.
To sumup,printercommandsareoftwotypes.Acontrolcodeis asingle-
charactercommandthattellsyourprintertodosomething,likemovedown
oneline.AnEscapesequencecontrolsaprinteroperationtoo,butis more
thanonecharacterlong.Sincetheyarecommands,neithercontrolcodesnor
escapesequencesamusuallyprintablecharacters.
8

Printer drivers
Mostsoftwarepackagesalreadyincludetheprintercommandstheyneed.
Theprogramsthatsendcommandstotheprinterso youdon’thavetoenter
themyourselfare calledprinterdrivers.
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 probably get answers most quickly by asking your software
supplierhowtheprograminteractswithyourprinter.
Inthismanualwerefertoprograms,fontsandotherproductssoldbyseveral
companies.PleaserealizethatmentioningtheseproductsdoesnotmeanStar
Micronicsendorsesthemin anyway.
Sending your own printer commands
Withoutaprinterdriver,sendingcontrolcodesand Escapesequencesto
yourprinterproperlyrequiressomeknowledgeofaprogramminglanguage
likeBASICor Pascal,or atleastofhowto putsuchcodesintoaprogram.
Withprogramminglanguages,thecomputerdoesn’tacton thecommands
youputintoaprogramuntilyoutellit to runthatprogram.
Whenyougiveacommandto the printerfromacomputerprogram,you
normallyentereachpartofthecommandasaseparatecharacter.Thisway
youdon’taffectanythingelsehappeningonthecomputer.Youoftensend
eachcodeorcharacterin thecommandbygivingitspositionin theASCII
table,as adecimalor hexnumber.
9

ABASIC example
Here’s an example you can typoin rightnow, to clarify what we’re saying.
It’s writtenin MicrosoflBASICfor acomputerthat uses the MS-DOS
operatingsystem,so if youhaveadifferentcomputeror BASICyoumay
havetotranslateabit.We’11showcommandsthewaythey’rewrittenforan
Epsondot-matrixprinterbecauseyourStarLaserPrinter8understandsthose
commands.
TheLPRINTcommandsallsenddatatotheprinter.Ifthedataissomething
youwantprintedyoujust putit inquotationmarks.If thedatais acontrol
codeyoujustsaywhereitisintheASCIItable,givingitspositionasaregular
decimalnumber.
BASICusuallysendsacarnagereturnafterevery80characters,tokeepthe
print positionmovingwhenit hitstheendof aline.Unasked-forcarriage
returnscanmessupyourprinting,however,soii’sagoodhabitto putin a
WIDTHstatementas shown.Thatletsus printoverthewholepagearea.
The<BEL>controlcode—ASCIIcode7— issentinBASICasCHR$(7).
The<ESC>codeitselfisCHR$(27).Andbecausewe’reusingthecharacter
4aspart 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
theprinterasafileto 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.
Printer emulations
You noticedthat we said “in EX-800mode”up there?YourStar Laser-
Printer8respondstothesameescapesequencecommandsthatseveralother
printersuse.BeingabletoemulateprintersliketheDiabloorEpsonEX-800
letsyouuseyourStarLaserPrinter8witholderprogramsthathaven’tbeen
updatedtotakeadvantageoflaserprinters.Infact,becauseitemulatesfour
of themostpopularprinters,youcanusetheStarLaserPrinter8withjust
aboutanymicrocomputerprogramaround.
Unfortunatelythose printers often use different escape sequencesfor
exactlythe same function.Thoseprinters,moreover,provideescapese-
quencesfor functionsthe Star LaserPrinter8doesn’tneed, such as the
Diablo’sChangePrintwheelcommand.(Printwheels—sometimescalled
“daisywheels”- areflatmetalorplasticprintelementsthatholdcharacters
outfromahubon “petals”.)Whenyourprintergetsacommandit doesn’t
support,itjust ignoresthecommand.
Macrosaresinglecontrolcodesyoucandefineyourself,whichdothework
ofawholelongseriesofprintercommands.Ifyouareaprogrammeryouwill
behappyto heartheStarLaserPrinter8supportsup to 99 macrosatonce.
11

12