Youcannotsettheleft marginfurtheroverthanthe rightmargin.Usethe
followingcommandtosettheleftmargin,settingntobethecolumnnumber
whereyou wanttheleftmarginto start:
<ESC>& a n L
Similarly,tosettherightmargin,yousendIhiscommandwithyourdesired
columnnurnbcr:
<ESC>&an M
Ifyouwanttoputbothleftandrightmarginsbackto theprinter’sprintable
limits—inotherwords,to “clear”thesidemargins—sendthiscommand:
<ESC> 9
Top margin
Vertically,theLaserPrinter8confinesitsprintingtoits“textlength,”which
shouldalwaysbelessthanitspagelength.Botharemeasuredinlines.You
canchangethemeaningofa “line”withline-spacingcommandsdescribed
laterin thischapter.
Whenyou set the top marginthough,it doesnot change,even when you
changethe definitionof a line. You can use this commandto set the top
marginanytime.Justbcawarethatifthecurrentprintpositionisbelowyour
margin,you’llhavetomovetheprintpositionbackup.Naturally,youhave
to keepyourtopmargininsidethepage-lengthlimit.
Usethiscommandto setthetopmargin,settingn tobcthenumberoflines
down from the top of the page that you wantleft blankbefore you start
printing:
<ESC>&t’nE
Notethatthecharacterfollowingthe“&”is a lowercase“L”.
Text length and the bottom margin
By default, the LaserPrinter8 automaticallygives you top and bottom
margins of the same size. So you only need to send the Text Length
commandwhenyouwantdifferenttop andbottommargins.
Ifyouwanta differentbottommargin,firstdecidehowmanytextlineswill
producethe marginyou want. Checkthat they won’t producea bottom
marginlowerthanthe pagelength.Then sendthe followingText Length
command,enteringfor n yourdesirednumberof lines:
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