<=-=-=-=>¢ 24 PIN PRINTERS AND THE 8 BIT¢¢ An OPEN letter from Charles Cole A.C.¢ HARDWARE & UTILITIES SOFTWARE EDITOR.¢¢ Dear OL' HACKERS,¢¢ Re: 24 PIN DOT MATRIX PRINTERS WITH¢ TEXT:¢¢ From the information I have been¢ able to glean from various sources, a¢ 24-pin dot matrix printer will work¢ OK with our Atari machines as long as¢ you are only going to do straight¢ text with the printer's built-in type¢ fonts, because the print pins are¢ controlled by an internal CPU to form¢ their characters, not the word¢ processor; therefore, they are OK¢ for use with Atariwriter Plus, Paper¢ Clip, Text Pro, 1st Xlent Word¢ Processor, etc. The Epson LX printer¢ driver should work with any of them.¢¢ BUT NOT WITH GRAPHICS!¢ These printers will 'NOT'¢ however, work properly with Daisy¢ Dots, Print Shop, Billboard, or any¢ other "text processor" that uses a¢ printer's graphics mode to print¢ text. And, you cannot download¢ external fonts to them, because their¢ command set and paper advance¢ commands are different than those of¢ a 9-pin printer.¢¢ BEN's WISH LIST!¢ This is what BEN POEHLAND has¢ been referring to in his DREAM STREET¢ column in ATARI CLASSICS when he¢ states that we need a DAISY DOT¢ program with "correct aspect ratio"¢ for a 24-pin printer. DAISY DOT uses¢ a printer's graphics mode. Because of¢ the different graphics commands¢ between a 9- and 24-pin machines,¢ the 24 pin printers squash the¢ characters and leave a horizonatal¢ white streak between head passes.¢ Graphics on a 24-pin printer produce¢ the same results. For instance, if¢ you try to print a Koala picture with¢ one of the graphic dump programs, a¢ white streak is left across the page¢ between each pass, and the picture¢ gets compressed vertically. A similar¢ problem exists, to a much lesser¢ extend, with a 9-pin printer when you¢ convert a Print Shop icon to Daisy¢ Dot III format, as evidenced by the¢ graphics on my letterhead, however,¢ in this case, the white streak runs¢ vertically through the icons, not¢ horizonatally.¢¢ MORE INFO FROM ANOTHER SOURCE!¢ Information received from Jeff¢ McWilliams indicates that the Epson¢ Stylus 800 ink jet printer suffers¢ from the same problems when used with¢ an Atari machine. The Epson¢ literature indicates that it has four¢ scalable fonts; however, these can be¢ used only with a striaght word¢ processor program that can send¢ control codes to the printer, and the¢ automatic line centering commands¢ such as those in Atari Writer Plus¢ (CNTRL-C) will 'NOT' automatically¢ center scalable fonts. This is¢ something that has to be claculated¢ manually for each centered line,¢ based on the size of the characters.¢ In short, a real hit-and-miss affair.¢ The Stylus will not do graphics,¢ either (at least not on an 8-bit¢ Atari). Another quirk of the Stylus¢ is the 61-lines-per-page limitation¢ instead of the normal 66 ines with¢ other printers. This is due to the¢ fact that the Stylus uses cut sheets,¢ and needs enough extra margin at the¢ top and bottom for the paper handling¢ mechanism.¢¢ WHAT IT DOESN'T WORK WITH:¢ Needless to say, it will not¢ work with any of the graphics text¢ processors, such as DAISY DOT, and¢ you cannot download additional fonts¢ to it, either. Another problem with¢ scalable fonts is that they also¢ expand vertically, and cut down on¢ the number of lines per page. Atari¢ word processors are not going to¢ realize this, however, and will still¢ count a line printed in 36-point type¢ as only a one page line, instead of¢ three. This throws the pagebreak way¢ off if you have a lot of these lines¢ on a page¢¢ A CHALLENGE TO ALL!¢ It sure would be nice if some¢ smart OHAUG programmer, or anyone¢ else for that matter, could come up¢ with custom fonts and drives for a¢ 24-pin printer and the Epson Stylus¢ so they would work properly with¢ DAISY DOT III. Modifying PRINT SHOP¢ however, would probably be¢ impossible, because you would also¢ have to modify every icon.¢¢ SAVE YOUR HARD EARNED BUCKS! ¢ I hope these answers help.¢ Please feel free to put this¢ information into an OHAUG newsletter,¢ since I'm sure other members are¢ curious about these new printers,¢ too, and are leary of investing in¢ one, only to find out that they have¢ just thrown their money down the¢ drain.¢ ¢ YOUR MODEM AND ME:¢ If you have a modem, I can be¢ reached through any of the following¢ (DELPHI is the least used by me):¢¢ Compuserve: 73217,2321¢ GEnie : C.COLE1¢ DELPHI : COLESHED¢ FidoNet : 1:309/35 (CHARLES¢ COLE)¢¢ Sincerly,¢ Charles ¢¢ (Editor-Thanks Charles, we will¢ spread the word to all our readers!)¢ (Read that as "TO ALL OUR FRIENDS"!)¢ >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<¢¢
