Epson FX-100 User Manual download pdf (Page 152)

Often a figure needs more than half a line. To reserve more than

255

columns for graphics, the second number (n,) must be greater than 0.

But n

does

not represent a number of single dots; it represents a num-

ber of groups, each of which contains 256 dots. Using a 1 in the second

slot means “reserve one group of 256 dots plus whatever is in the first

slot.” A 2 in that spot means “reserve two groups of 256 dots (512) plus

. . .” and so on-up to 7 times 256 (or 1792) dots on the FX-80 and up

times 256 (or 3072) on the FX-100.

Actually, the FX-80 will accept numbers larger than 7 for n

, but it is

pointless to send them because the printer treats them as modulo 8.

That is, 8 works the same as 0, 9 as 1, 10 as 2, etc.

Similarly, the FX-100 treats numbers above 12 as modulo 13. The

maximum number of dots you can reserve on the FX-80, then, is:

CHR$(27)"K"CHR$(255)CHR$(7);

which is 255 dots plus 7 times 256 dots . . . for a total of 2047 dots per

row. On the FX-100, you can reserve 255 plus 12 times 256 . . . for a

total of 3327 dots per row.

But on a Single-Density print line you can only fit 480 dots.

For now, we’ll stick with Single-Density, which means that we

won’t use numbers over 480. Later we’ll see that the FX does have

Graphics Modes of greater density.

Some systems, such as those for the IBM-PC and the Epson QX-10,

also require WIDTH statements for longer lines. See your system doc-

umentation.

Pin Labels

Once you put the printer into Graphics Mode, your next step is to

tell the print head which pins to fire at each new position. You do this

by sending numbers via the CHR$ function. Each number that you

send represents a unique combination of pins.

You might expect that the eight pins would be numbered 1 through

8 (as they are in Figure 10-1). But that won’t work because you are

going to send one number to represent all the pins to fire in one col-

umn. Using the 1-through-8 system, you would send such a total as 10

and the FX wouldn’t know if this meant pins 4 and 6 or pins 2,3, and 5.

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Epson FX-100 User Manual Page 152