Appendix B. A Quick Look at Line Matrix Printing
Character Formation
The IBM 6500–v is an impact printer: it creates characters by printing ink dots on
paper. Dots overlap to produce a solid-appearing character of uniform density. The
dots are made by an assembly of steel hammers mounted on a rapidly oscillating
shuttle. The hammers strike the paper through a moving ink ribbon. The dot
patterns of characters are mapped in printer memory on invisible matrices, as
shown in Figure 19.
Matrix visible only to
the printer
Dot Column
Dot Row
Ink dots formed by
hammer tips
Character Row
Character Column
C2qu0115
Figure 19. Typical Character Formation
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2005 261