Star Micronics 8 Series - Controlling the Page

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Hints: The hex dump
● TomakeyourStar LaserPrinter8 printin hexadecimalratherthan the
usualASCIIsymbols,pressthe frontpanelbuttonsthat putthe pnntcr
offlineandinPROGRAMmode.MovetotheCOMMANDparameter’s
HEXDUMPsettingand selectON.
● SomccontrolorEscapecodescanbeproblemsonafewcomputcrs;those
computerschangecertaincodeswhensendingthemtotheprinter.If you
thinkyouhavethisproblemyouneedtoseeexactlywhatyourprinteris
receiving.Werecommendyourunashortprogramthatloopsthroughand
printstheASCIItable.PrintinhexadecimalratherthantheusualASCII
symbols.
● If youspota problemcodeyoucantryto bypasstheproblem,eitherby
sendingeachcodedirectlyto theprinter,or by changingyoursystem
printerdriver.Suchcomputer-specificsolutions,though,arebeyondthe
scopeof thismanual.Wesuggestthatif necessaryyouconsultanother
programmermorefamiliarwithyourcomputer.
● Actually,ifyouaredebugginganyprogramyou mayfindthishex-dump
modehelpful.It can be a greattrouble-shooter.
CONTROLLING THE PAGE
In this section we look at two controls you have over how the Star
LaserPrinter8 handlesand formatsits pages: You can set valuesfor the
PAPERFEEDandLAYOUTparameterson thefrontpanel.Attheend of
thissectionwe’llalsopreviewdifferentwaysto movethe printposition.
The PAPER FEED parameter
ThePAPERFEEDparameterletsyouspecifybothwhatkindofpaperyou
wantandhowtheprinteris to handleautomaticprint-positionmovements
(carriagereturnsandso on).
Oneconvenientthingaboutalaserprinteristhatitdoesn’tneed
continuous
forms,
sometimescalled~an~okipaper. Otherprintersfeed in a stack of
forms—withpagesalljoinedbyperforations-by havingsprocketsengage
andpull
alongpinfeed holespunchedalongeachsideofthepaper.Afterit’s
printedyou haveto tear off the pinfeed-holestripsand then separatethe
pages.
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