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LQ & LQMATRIX FONT design programs for Epson LQ dot matrix printers (and compatibles) Written in Turbo Pascal 3 & 5.5 (Borland International) The Programs & Documentation by J. David Sapir [Jimmy Paris Software] Copyrighted 1985-1991 A member of the Association of Shareware Professionals _______ ____|__ | (R) --| | |------------------- | ____|__ | Association of | | |_| Shareware |__| o | Professionals -----| | |--------------------- |___|___| MEMBER These programs are distributed as SHAREWARE. Fre-quent users of the programs are expected to register. Unmodified and complete copies of the programs, documentation and fonts can be copied and distributed freely or for a small copying fee. Please turn to pages 3-5 for complete information about SHAREWARE, registration, warranties and restrictions, etc. J. David Sapir 906 Old Farm Rd. Charlottesville, VA. 22903 U.S.A. (804) 295-5496 CompuServe 70242,1114 Revised 24.iii.91 (to go with version [ 4.3 ] | 7.iii.90 of LQMATRIX) Page: 2 CONTENTS Contents 2 Definition of Shareware 3 Disclaimer - Agreement 3 ASP Ombudsman Statement 4 Registration 5 Introduction 6 Materials Included on the Disk(s) 7 LQ.EXE 10 Using the Fonts 12 LQMATRIX.EXE 18 Using the Editor 22 Addenda 31 Acknowledgements & Font explanations 33 About the programmer 39 Page: 3 Definition of SHAREWARE Shareware distribution gives users a chance to try software before buying it. If you try a Shareware program and continue using it, you are expected to register. Individual programs differ on details -- some request registration while others require it, some specify a maximum trial period. With registration, you get anything from the simple right to continue using the software to an updated program with printed manual. Copyright laws apply to both Shareware and commercial software, and the copyright holder retains all rights, with a few specific exceptions as stated below. Shareware authors are accomplished programmers, just like commercial authors, and the programs are of comparable quality. (In both cases, there are good programs and bad ones!) The main difference is in the method of distribution. The author specifically grants the right to copy and distribute the software, either to all and sundry or to a specific group. For example, some authors require written permission before a commercial disk vendor may copy their Shareware. Shareware is a distribution method, not a type of software. You should find software that suits your needs and pocketbook, whether it's commercial or Shareware. The Shareware system makes fitting your needs easier, because you can try before you buy. And because the overhead is low, prices are low also. Shareware has the ultimate money- back guarantee -- if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it. Disclaimer - Agreement Users of LQMATRIX and accompanying programs must accept this disclaimer of warranty: "LQMATRIX and accompanying programs are supplied as is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or conse-quential, which may result from the use of LQMATRIX and accompanying programs." LQMATRIX and accompanying programs are "shareware programs" and are provided at no charge to the user for evaluation. Feel free to share them with your friends, but please do not give them away altered or as part of another system. The essence of "user-supported" software is to provide personal computer users with quality software without high prices, and yet to provide incentive for programmers to continue to develop new products. If you find this program useful and Page: 4 find that you are using LQMATRIX and accompanying programs and continue to use LQMATRIX and accompanying programs after a reasonable trial period, you must make a reg- istration payment of $19.50 U.S. ($24 U.S. overseas) to J. David Sapir. The $19.50 registration fee will license one copy for use on any one computer at any one time. You must treat this software just like a book. An example is that this software may be used by any number of people and may be freely moved from one computer location to another, so long as there is no possibility of it being used at one location while it's being used at another. Just as a book cannot be read by two different persons at the same time. Commercial users of LQMATRIX and accompanying programs must register and pay for their copies of LQMATRIX and accompanying programs within 30 days of first use or their license is withdrawn. Site-License arrangements may be made by contacting J.David Sapir. Anyone distributing LQMATRIX and accompanying programs for any kind of remuneration must first contact J. David Sapir at the address below for authorization. This authorization will be automatically granted to distributors recognized by the (ASP) as adhering to its guidelines for shareware distributors, and such distributors may begin offering LQMATRIX and accompanying programs immediately (However J. David Sapir must still be advised so that the distributor can be kept up-to-date with the latest version of LQMATRIX and accompanying programs.). You are encouraged to pass a copy of LQMATRIX and accompanying programs along to your friends for evaluation. Please encourage them to register their copy if they find that they can use it. All registered users will receive a copy of the latest version of the LQMATRIX and accompanying programs. ASP Ombudsman Statement. LQMATRIX and accompanying programs are produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442-9427 or send a Compuserve message via CompuServe Mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536 Page: 5 REGISTRATION Registration is for $19.50 U.S. ($24 U.S. from outside the U.S.) Registered users will receive the following upon registration: The latest version of the programs, any new fonts that have been added, and a printed version of this documentation along with an explanation of the extra fonts. Registered users will be notified at any time a major update is made. Registered users receive technical support. Feel free to phone or write me for help and I will do whatever I can. If you find a bug let me know and I shall fix it. And within limitation I shall be happy to customize the program for your particular needs. And, if you have any ideas for improvements, let me know and I shall be happy to consider making them. When registering please indicate the version number and date listed at the start of your current LQMATRIX program. I would like to know as well what you use the user made fonts for: In translation work, for scientific documents, as a linguist (registered users get a set of useful IPA characters), in editing or just because you like to vary the scripts you use when you print? Send a check or postal money order (sometimes cash is best from overseas) to: J. David Sapir 906 Old Farm Rd. Charlottesville, VA. 22903 USA ----------------------------------------------------------- [There is a version of this set of programs for the Epson 9 pin FX printers, FXMATRIX (and untested versions for the Gemini and Omni 9 pin printers, and the Diconex ink jet printer). Inquire.] ----------------------------------------------------------- Page: 6 INTRODUCTION Dot matrix printers operate in either a Text or a Graphics mode. The printer can print User made fonts in either mode, but it does it differently for each. The Graphic mode prints dot by dot. The software (such as Fancy Font) reads the text to be printed and for each letter sends to the printer the appropriate dots. The results can be extremely impressive (especially by using quadruple- density graphics). However the printing is excruciatingly slow and is best used to create letterheads and attractive logos. In contrast, LQMATRIX, LQ and the accompanying programs and fonts are designed to use the Text mode of printing user made fonts. This mode is as fast as using the default letters and thus is useful for printing long texts. In the Text mode the printer accepts a ('soft' or RAM) font into memory and uses it rather than the built in ('hard' or ROM) font. In fact, when so instructed, it can switch back and forth between the two. Thus if you have written a paper in English but wish to cite examples in the Greek alphabet you can 'download' (send to the printer) the Greek font (GREEK.LQN on this package) and use it when necessary. What these programs do is to provide one of the great advantages of a Laser printer - the possibility of using a wide variety of interesting and attractive fonts - with a 24 pin dot matrix machine. In trying these fonts, especially in the proportional mode, you will be surprised how attractive many of them are. There will be two types of users for these programs. First are those who wish to use a variety of ready made fonts for different purposes, or just for variety's sake. These users will not be interested in creating their own fonts. For them, all that is needed is the LQ.EXE program. With it, any of the premade fonts included here can be downloaded to the the printer. The other users are those who wish to create their own fonts, modify to their satisfaction those that are already supplied, or create a small number of special characters for a specific task. LQMATRIX.EXE provides just the environment these users need. It is an easy to use matrix program with many features that permits the user to create characters, store them in a file, and download them to the Epson LQ family of 24 dot matrix printers. With it you can design Draft, NLQ (10 cpi), and Proportional characters. [Compatibility: LQ & LQMATRIX will work with EPSON 24 pin Page: 7 compatibles such as the NEC P2200 writers. With the 24 pin Panasonic printer you will have to set it for the EPSON 2500 mode and make sure that you have added the extra memory to the printer (at an extra cost!). It should work as well with recent models of the Okidata and Toshiba 24 pin printers when set to emulate the EPSON printers.] Materials Included on the Disk(s) The materials are distributed in two ways: The shareware version which on one disk comprised of self-extracting files. The registered version on two disks where the first of which contains the documentation and executable programs and the second contains all of the downloadable fonts which are in self-extracting files. (The archives were created with LHarc (c) Yoshi '89). Disk #1 (or slfx LQMTX43.EXE) FX_LQ.COM - A utility to help you convert FX files written with FXMATRIX to LQ files. (cf. Addenda) LQASCII.EXE - A utility to convert the LQ binary files to ASCII text files (cf. Addenda). LQCONVRT.EXE - Convert NLQ to Prop, Prop to NLQ formats (cf Addenda) LQMATRIX.DOC - This documentation. LQMATRIX.EXE - The main font designer LQX.DEF - Setup for LQMATRIX and LQ QUICKIE.DOC - Help for a first try. WP40LONG.DOC - Extended documentation, by Allen A. Cook for using LQMATRIX with Word Perfect 5.0 Disk #2 (Registered version - otherwise on Disk #1) self-extracting (slfx) All font files slfx LQFONT.EXE containing: ALPHA.LQD BLOCK.LQP CAPS.LQD EXTRA1.LQN EXTRA1.LQP GOTHIC.LQP (copyright 1989 by Hermann Philipps) GREEK.DOC (documentation for GREEK.LQN) GREEK.LQN (copyright 1989 by Rev. William Moorhead) IPA1.LQN (copyright 1988 by Michael Henderson) ITALIC.LQP (copyright 1989 by Dale Koepp) LARGO.LQN (copyright 1989 by Hermann Philipps) LARGO.LQP " " PRES.LQN PRES.LQP Page: 8 PRES2.LQN PRES2.LQP RUSS.LQP (copyright 1989 by Mr. J. William Davis) SCRIPT.LQN SCRIPT.LQP SCRIPT2.LQN SCRIPT2.LQP SPEAKER.LQP (copyright 1989 by Rev. William Moorhead.) STENCIL.LQN (converted from another format) STUDRUSS.LQP (copyright 1989 by Mr. Ernest R. May) slfx LQCRE.EXE - fonts contributed and copyright 1990 by Mr. C. Ross Chamberlain. ARTSY.LQP CLASSIC.LQP ENGLISH.LQP HAPIFACE.LQP ROSCRAFT.LQP SCRAWL.LQP SQUATE.LQP TYPER.LQP ZODIAC.LQP slfx LQRNW.EXE - fonts contributed and copyright 1990 by Mr. Richard N. Wisan. CONDD.LQD CONDP.LQP CONDQ.LQN ELITED.LQD ELITEP.LQP ELITEQ.LQN FIFD.LQD FIFP.LQP FIFQ.LQN SANSP.LQP SANSQ.LQN WEED.LQD WEEP.LQP WEEQ.LQN slfx LQREH.EXE - fonts contributed and copyright 1990 by Mr. Roy E. Hensel. (The GO batch program will put these in a separate directory \HENSEL.) COMIC.LQP HENSEL.DOC HENSEL.LQP HOBO.LQP TECH.LQP Page: 9 Please turn to Pages 33-38 for explanations by the authors of the fonts. Getting started. Unpacking: If you have the one disk self-extracting version, put the disk in the A: drive and type GO. This will bring up the GO.BAT batch file which will run all of the self- extracting programs prompting you to change disks when necessary. If you are unpacking on to a Hard Disk a sub- directory called LQMATRIX will automatically by created. You can unpack the files independently of the batch by typing the name of the file and hitting CR (as with any program). If you wish to direct the unarchived files to another drive use the switch \X: after the file name (where X:=the desired drive). Getting started is very simple. To see what changes you can make with your printer download one of the fonts. (Be sure the printer is on!) For example on disk #2 enter LQ ARTSY and hit CR. Then send a document to the printer. The easiest way to do that is as follows: Type this DOS command: copy con prn Now write something. When finished type ^Z (control Z) and hit CR. Your message will now go to the printer. Page: 10 LQ.EXE. LQ.EXE operates from the command line prompt A>. Enter LQ followed by the font to be downloaded (be sure that the printer is on). You need NOT enter the extension (LQP or LQN). The program will search for that suffix on its own. If it finds more than one file with this name it will ask you which one you want (Proportional, NLQ, Draft - whichever ones are present). Thus to download the file LARGO.LQP all you do is enter LQ LARGO <cr> and that will do it. If you enter LQ alone you will get short help screen. LQ has the following switches that you may enter from the command line: /0 : (zero) sets the printer to the ROM - default - characters. You will then have to change to the user characters from within the document. (Cf. below on using the programs.) /B : turns off the bell at the end of downloading. The 'no file on disk' noise (in honor of Haydn's 93rd symphony) will NOT be turned off. /D : disables the program display. Useful when using LQ from within a batch file. /E : sets the printer to emphasized. /F : directs the download commands to a disk file rather than to the printer. /M : sets the printer to Elite (12 cpi) - only with NLQ. /P : will print out the contents of the file as it is being downloaded. Numbers and Upper and Lower case letters will be set off on separate lines. You might wish to use this switch when determining what font to use. /R : will disable the printer RESET (<esc @>) and the copy ROM to RAM functions (<esc : 0 0 0>). Use this when you wish to superimpose one download file on another [In doing this it is essential that the two files are in the SAME mode. If not, the original download will be disabled. /@ : like /R will disable the RESET, but will no not disable the copy ROM to RAM routine. This will be useful when Page: 11 downloading in the middle of a page. The printer's formfeed calculation will not be reset. /S : will copy the ROM Sans-serif font into the RAM. The default is Roman. This is to be used ONLY on printers that support BOTH Roman and Sans-serif character sets [the LQ 850, for example]. /T : narrows spacing between lines to about 1/8th of an inch so graph characters will touch. /W : will change the line spacing from the default of 6 lines per inch to 4 lines per inch. /X : ON some PRINTERS only (LQ 850 for example). Opens the ASCII locations 128 through 159 for downloading and permits downloading upper ASCII character (see page 5 above). These commands may be given in any combination or in any order. You needn't use Caps. They must be separated by a space and they must follow the file name. A>LQ GOTHIC /E /T gives: GOTHIC.LQP with emphasis and narrow spacing. I suggest putting LQ.EXE and your commonly used character file on your data disk to be used when needed. The /F switch will create a file with the same name, but with different extensions. SCRIPT.LQP creates SCRIPT.DWP (download proportional) and GREEK.LQN creates GREEK.DWN (download NLQ). These files will be useful for word processors that automatically send setup code to the printer before activating their print driver. If you enter any of the switches, say /0 (set to ROM) they will be incorporated into your download file. If you use the DOS copy routine be SURE to enter the /B (BINARY) DOS switch, e.g. COPY/B GOTHIC.DWP PRN. This will tell DOS that the file is a binary file and not a text file. If you neglect to use the /B switch the copy routine will quit the first time it encounters the text end-of-file marker: ^Z (hex 1A). Page: 12 Using the FONTS Under normal circumstances you will want to use LQMATRIX in one of two ways: To replace the entire alphabet with a design of your own making (as with SCRIPT.LQP) or to replace a few unused characters (@, |, \) with ones of your own. To work either way all you need do is download the set and create your document from a word processor. (If the word processor resets the printer on entering you will have to download from within the program (the R option in Word Star.) But there are times when you will have a large set of user made characters to combine with the default alphabet. The LQ printer permits you to do this. While printing it can shift back and forth between the ROM default characters and the RAM user made characters. (The codes are: <esc>%<1> for RAM and <esc>%<0> for ROM.) How can we make use of this feature? That will depend on your word processor. Generally, the better ones allow you to add on some extra print codes. I have information for the following word processors: [Guides for other word processors would be greatly appreciated.] WORD STAR 3: WS-3 permits 4 user defined print codes that are assigned to Control letters. Here you would assign the RAM code to one of them and the ROM code to another. WORD PERFECT 5: Short Guide to WordPerfect 5.0 and a NEC P2200 24 pin printer (which could just as easily be an Epson LQ printer. This Guide is Copyright (C) 1990 by Allan H. Cook, 3 Cheyne Walk, Grange Park, London N21 1DB, England. Phone: 01-360 3918. Area code changes to 081-on 6 May 1990. This is written for use with the NEC P2200 printer; special features of that printer may not be available on all Epson compatible 24 pin machines; likewise, some details may differ on other printers. It is hoped that the information here will interest and help all readers including users of other word processors. Firstly, the printer must be set with the buffer at 4K, otherwise there is no memory for downloaded fonts. There are two aspects to the use of soft fonts which should be conidered: (1) sending the commands to the printer for printing the required characters, and (2) informing Page: 13 WordPerfect of the size and spacing of your character set so that the program places the correct number of characters on each line. Character set files may be downloaded to the printer (using LQ.EXE) either before starting WordPerfect or from Shell (Ctrl-F1), 1 Go to Dos. Printer commands can be embedded in a document by using the Menus: Format (Shift F8), 4 Other, 6 Printer Functions, 2 Printer Command, 1 Command. The string to turn on the user RAM is entered as: <27>%1 [Enter]. Then press Exit (F7) to return to the Document Screen. The code [Ptr Cmnd:<27>%1] can be seen in the Reveal Codes Screen (F11 or Alt F3) at the position of the cursor. Using fixed pitch characters is easy. Select a base font of the required pitch from the Document Screen using the Menus: Font (Ctrl F8), 4 Base Font, 1 Select, and Exit (F7) to return to the document screen. WordPerfect then places the correct number of characters on each line, both on the screen and on the printed page. The code [Font:Courier 12] (or whatever) would be visible in the Reveal Codes Screen, and should be followed by the Printer Command <27>%1 to turn on the RAM. Incidentally, it is possible to use the printer's ROM character sets at pitches other than their intended pitch. For example, the font OCR-B is very widely spaced at 10 CPI, but looks quite good when used at 12 CPI. In a WordPerfect document, select the base font for the character shapes you want to use; then embed the Printer Command <27>:<0><0><0> which loads the currently selected ROM font into RAM. (The colon is ascii <58>). Select a base font of the pitch you want to use (to tell Word Perfect how many characters to fit on the line) after which you should embed the <27>%1 command to turn on the RAM. You can load different ROM fonts into the RAM as many times as you like within a document, but you can only use one downloaded character file in a print run. Downloaded characters print in the same size as the font you are using: if your base font is double wide, then the RAM set will print in double wide also. LQN character sets in RAM are not printed in draft mode: the familiar draft characters appear on the paper. LQP proportional downloaded character sets print irrespective of the draft/high quality print setting, as Proportional has no draft mode. In order to make use of a downloaded proportional font, you should select a proportional font as the base font and then embed the <27>%1 command to turn it on. Do not embed a <27>p1 command to select proportional spacing if you are using a complete character set, because WordPerfect would have no information on the widths of the downloaded characters. If you are only using a few special symbols occasionally, then you might be tempted to ignore this Page: 14 detail. To use proportional characters correctly you should define a new font by using the PTR program. The methods described in this short guide for selecting the printer RAM for using downloaded fonts are cumbersome but achieve results quickly and may whet the user's appetite for them; continued use of downloaded characters is greatly facilitated by modification of a printer driver using the WordPerfect PTR Program. This is covered more fully in the long guide to WordPerfect 5.0 and the NEC P2200 printer which is in the file WP50LONG.DOC. Please do not be intimidated by the PTR Program: a novice should be able to follow the step by step approach to customising printer drivers. PC-WRITE: With the MENUPRT program you first set up a PR.DEF file for the LQ. Call up MENUPRT and follow your nose. After running the program you will exit to the DOS (A>) and will notice, in calling the directory (DIR) that there is now a file called PR.DEF (not to be confused with ED.DEF). Before sending a file to the printer the PR.EXE (or the ED.EXE with PC-Write 3 and beyond) looks for this ruler file and follows its customized commands. (PC-Write 3 reads the PR.DEF file when it is first called. The old PR.DEF has been integrated with the main program, ED.EXE in PC-Write 3.) Enter the PC editor and call up the ED.DEF. You will see lines like these: #B=2+27,69-27,70 #C=6+15-18 . . #L=25+27,83,1-27,84 #B= 2 indicates that Alternate key B has been assigned to ASCII number 2. When the print driver comes across ASCII 2 it will start sending codes to the printer. The first time it sees ASCII 2 it will send (after the + sign) ASCII 27 (escape) then ASCII 69. This will turn on the bold. When the print driver encounters 2 again in the same line it sends the codes following the - sign, in this case 27 followed by 70. This turns off the bold. These type of commands work for one line only. If the bold is not turned off within the line, it will automatically go off after the CR. Now. Find an unused alternate key, say alternate R, which PC-Write assigns to ASCII 30. Then enter the following code line: #R=30 +27,37,1-27,37,0 Page: 15 and save the file with this new code. Before printing be sure to download your user font using the LQ.EXE program. If you intend to switch back and forth between the default ROM and your RAM fonts use the /0 switch. This will set the printer to ROM and you will switch your user font as follows: With this new code line in place PC-WRITE allows you to flip back and forth from ROM to RAM in two different ways - Within a single line: - Enter Alt R and the printer will flip into RAM until another Alt R or the end of the line is reached. Within a text: - To set the print driver to use the RAM beyond a single line you must use the Dot Command. A dot command is written in the extreme left margin and starts for with alt G (ASCII #11) then with a dot. To turn on a font you use the .R: dot command followed by the assigned alternate letter which in our case is R. To turn it off you use instead .Q: followed by R. Thus .R:R turns on the RAM and .Q:R turns it off. Here is another trick that you might want to use. Take an example. Let's say you have designed the phonetic letter to indicate a velar nasal (an n with a right side descending tail) [that is the ng sound in sing]. You have assigned it in your LQN file to the n position (ASCII no. 110). Following the manner above you would enter alt R n alt R to switch to RAM, print the velar n, and then switch back to ROM. Rather than the inconvenience of the alt R you could instead assign the upper ASCII 239 - the symbol that looks like a croquet hoop - to the velar nasal. Then you would place the following line in your PR.DEF: $239=27,37,1,110,27,37,0 Then every time PC-Write's print driver encounters ASCII 239 (the croquet hoop) it will first send the user RAM code (esc,%,1 - i.e. 27, 34,1), then the letter n (110) and finally the back to ROM code (esc,%,0 - i.e. 27,34,0). [ This, by the way, is how the LQ850 manages its esc T2 sequence.] PC-Write allows you to enter the RAM/ROM switches directly by using the Alt key along with the numeric pad. Follow the Page: 16 instructions below for Microsoft WORD. Rev William Moorhead supplies the following guide for using LQMATRIX with Microsoft WORD: In accordance with the usual "LQMATRIX" instructions, download your font at the DOS prompt (A> or C>) using the command: LQ fontname (LQ fontname 0 if you want to reset the printer default ROMfont for normal printing). The download program will signal when it is completed and return you to command level (the DOS prompt). Load Microsoft Word as usual. To toggle on the downloaded custom RAMfont, send the printer control code sequence "ESC % 1." From Word this is done by the sequence "<Alt-27>%1", where <Alt-27> means: hold down the Alt key while entering 2 7 on the keypad, then release the Alt key; then without spaces enter the percent sign and the numeral one. To toggle from the custom font back to the default, enter "<Alt-27>%0". This restores the printer to its built-in ROMfont. (The use of <Alt> and a keypad number sequence is the standard way in which ASCII codes are sent to the printer from within Word; that's how the extended character set and graphics characters are accessed. "27" is the ASCII code for "Esc".) You may wish to create macros to toggle the printer control codes; this can be done in the usual way. See the Word documentation. Your Microsoft Word document must be formatted to print in a letter-quality font (e.g. Roman or SansSerif; NLQ on the LQ- 800). If it is set in a draft mode (pica or elite) the custom font will not kick in. (However, you can print words with the custom font even while you are using a draft mode default font for the body of your text, if you Select those words or passages which you want to print in the custom font and Character Format them to Roman.) This writer has found that this works perfectly well with Microsoft Word 4.0 into an Epson LQ-850; he cannot vouch for any other combination! Mr. Hugh Maddocks of Reston Virginia sends these instructions for XyWrite III+: Download the desired font from the command line, using the LQ.EXE program entering the filename and 0 to set the Page: 17 printer for the default (ROM) characters. Load up XyWrite. At the place in your text where you wish to change to the user font (RAM) proceed as follows: Hit F5 then write in PI, enter a space, then hit the esc(ape) key followed % (percent key) then hit shift alternate 1, then hit return (CR). That will take you to your text and you will see the funny face. [i.e. F5 PI <esc>% <alt-shf>1 (CR)] When you wish to return to the default character follow the same routine, except you enter shift alternate 0. A double zero 00 will mark then null character [i.e. F% PI <esc>% <alt-shf>0 (CR)] PI stands for 'printer insert.' ***************************** Page: 18 LQMATRIX.EXE At the prompt (A> etc) enter LQMATRIX alone or LQMATRIX followed by the name of a file to be edited. If the former you will be asked (under the title page) whether you want to design Draft, NLQ or Proportional characters. On selecting one or the other you will then be asked for a file name. Enter a name of up to eight letters long. An extension of LQD, LQN or LQP (depending on mode) will be added to it automatically. If you wish to use your own extension you may, but to do so will probably create confusion. After entering the name hit the CR. If the file is on the disk it will be loaded into memory, otherwise it will be considered a new file to be created. In recalling a file already on the disk you may see the directory of .LQP [or LQN in NLQ; LQD in Draft] files by entering '?' or '/'. You can change the path or mask (*.BAP for example to see the backup proportonal). The path set is the default drive, but it may be changed, e.g. from B: to C:\FONTS\ for example. Be sure that you follow DOS conventions when making the change. The listing of files in the directory will appear at the top of the screen. Select the one you want be moving the bar cursor around hitting CR at the appropriate one. The chosen file will appear in the selection window. If unsatisfied call the directory again with '/' or '?'. When selected with a CR, the font will be brought into memory and the Main Menu will appear. If, on the command line, you enter the file's name, the file, if present, will be automatically brought into memory. You need not enter the extension suffix unless it is other than the expected .LQD, .LQP or .LQN. If the file is not on the disk it is assumed that you wish to create a new file, and you will be asked if you want to edit a Draft, Proportional or a NLQ font. If you have several files in different modes but with the same name you will be given the choice of editing one or the other. The main menu looks like this: <E>dit rint Routines <S>tore <N>ew Type Quality [Prop] <V>ersion <M>iscellaneous <Q>uit {or [NLQ] or [Draft]} Page: 19 <E>dit (enter E) takes you to the matrix - and we'll come back to that shortly. rint Routines brings up the print menu: -------------------------------------------------------------- rint new letters print <F>ile contents <D>ownload to printer copy R<O>M->RAM <T>ype keyboard rint new letters will download the current file to the printer and then print the new letters entering line spaces to set numbers and Upper and Lower cases letters off from eachother. print <F>ile contents. This prints out the entire file giving the ASCII number of each character, the character in its default and then its user created form. When using the characters it is useful to have this print out at hand so you can remember which characters go with which keys. When printing a proportional file each character's width will be printed out after the character. At the end the whole set of downloaded letters will be printed (as of Print new letters above). <D>ownload will download the current file into the printer's RAM memory. As long as the printer remains on it will print out these downloaded characters. The printer resets whenever a new file is brought into memory. The new file will have to be downloaded if it is to be in the printer's RAM. ROM to RAM copy <O> -- ONLY for those printers that allow it [LQ 850 for example]. Consult your manual. Permits you to copy the Sans-serif characters from ROM into the RAM. The default is set for Roman. [Same as the /S switch with LQ.COM - cf. below.] <T>ype keyboard will type out the Keyboard with the user made characters. This is usual when creating a font with special characters or a non-Roman alphabet. --------------------------------------------------------------- Store <S> stores what is in memory. If it is an old file you will be given the option of storing under a new name or using its current name. If the latter the file it overwrites Page: 20 will be converted into a backup with the extension .BAP, .BAN or BAD. If you try to store on a disk that doesn't have enough room the store routine will halt until the disk is replaced by another with enough space. New <N>. Either to call into memory a file from disk or to start a new file. If you have changed the current file you will be asked if you want save it to disk, otherwise the changes will be lost. If you want to save it you will go through the Save routine afterwhich you will be asked for a new file name with the option of calling up the directory. Before entering the new file's name you will be asked if you wish a Proportional, NLQ or Draft file. The current file in memory will be noted at the top of the screen to the right. Under the file name is a listing of the keys in the file that have user made characters assigned to them. <V>ersion will show the current version and date of LQMATRIX. <M>iscellaneous brings up the following menu: ------------------------------------------------------------ <C>ombine files <S>ort file print out <R>egistration form Setp <C>ombine files. This will allow you to combine two files. You will first be asked which file you want added to the file in memory and then, after you have combined the files, whether you want to change the combined file's name. <S>ort file. Although a new character is automatically put in its proper (ASCII) place when it is saved from the editor (cf below), a file made up of two pre-existing files is unsorted. Entering <R> will sort that file. Setp. Setup will first ask you: Alter highlighting? <Y/N> If yes you will be allowed to adjust the screen writing brightness (or color) to suit your computer. You will enter first the High value, then the Low value. A simple CR will retain the default values. Page: 21 Next setup will ask you: change ASCII Range? <Y/N> If yes you will be able to alter the range of ASCII locations accepted for downloading as well as change the location used to test print a character from the editor. The defaults are Max=127, Min=1 and Test location=127. You can, at the extreme, set the minimum at 0 and the maximum at 255. However, to my knowledge, no printer allows the full range. For the LQ-500 you are restricted to Min=32, Max=127. If you have a Citizen GSX-140 printer you will have to change the test location for its range is from 1 to 126. Put it at 1 or 33, for example. EPSON LQ850. The LQ850 has two commands: esc 't'#2 that opens the upper ASCII for downloading and esc '6' that permits access to the upper control area, ASCII 128-159. The LQ850, in fact, does NOT download to the upper area. Rather, after issuing the two commands you download to the lower area and the printer automatically reroutes upper ASCII characters to the this area. This permits you to have the full IBM character set including the upper ASCII accented letters, special signs and graphic primitives. The lower ASCII are the built in ROM characters and the upper characters are the ones you download. If you have a LQ850 and set the maximum above 127 you must use the two esc commands. Therefore, after setting the maximum, minimum and test you will be asked, if the maximum is greater than 127, if you want to have the LQ850 commands put in play. When you download a file, characters out of range will not be sent to the printer. This will avoid some unpleasant business at the printer. After you have finished making the necessary changes for both the highlighting and the ASCII range you will be given the opportunity of creating a file named LQX.DEF that will be read every time you boot the program. The LQX.DEF file is one line: n(high),n(low),n(max),n(min),n(test)[,X = use LQ850 commands]. print out <R>egistration form. This will print out the LQMATRIX registration form. Be sure the printer is on. ------------------------------------------------------------- Quit <Q> to quit. If you have changed the file - edited it, added to it or deleted from it - you will be asked before exiting if you want to save the file. If yes, you will exit via the Store routine. Page: 22 Using the EDITOR Edit <E> - The matrix editor. On hitting 'E' you move to the editor and the cursor moves to the 37 by 24 (or 28 X 24, 9 X 24) matrix to the left. The file contents is listed to the right. The 2nd, 8th and 19th row lines of the matrix are marked. Normal cap letters appear between the 2nd and 19th rows and small letters between the 8th and 19th rows, though often fonts drop below the bottom line (cf. LARGO.LQP). What is important is the maintain consistency throughout the entire font. Two matrix screens are available: with and without the lined grid. The latter (without) is the default. You switch from one to the other with the Alt G key. The cells of the matrix can be marked or left unmarked. The marked pattern forms to shape of the character you are designing and for each column represent the printer pins to be fired. The cursor will set down on the spaces and lines in Proportional and NLQ but only the spaces in Draft. There is one constraint in designing. Although there are 37 (28, or 9) columns - spaces + lines - you may not have two dots placed in adjacent columns. By hitting H a help screen will be displayed in which you can scroll or page through (up and down) with the up and down arrows and pg_up and pg_down. But the way to learn your way around the matrix is to try it out. The cursor arrows move you up - down - right - left. So do the numerals: 8 : up 2 : down 6 : right 4 : left 9 : up-right 7 : up-left 3 : down-right 1 : down-left CR or SB (space bar) : mark or erase a dot ins : marks a dot. del : erases a dot. There are three marking modes: N : mark or erase each cell as you go. T : automatically marks a dot as you move. E : automatically erases a dot as you move. Hitting the SB or CR in the Trace mode will erase the dot under the cursor, and hitting SB or CR in the Erase mode will mark the dot. Page: 23 AltC : The printer does not permit adjacent columns to be marked within the same row. To conform to this rule the editor gives two options that are toggled with AltC: Precedent for the new mark (the Default). In this mode, if you place a mark next to a mark the latter mark will be erased. When using the trace mode this mode is most useful. Precedent for what has already been marked. In this mode, if you try to place a mark next to a mark nothing will happen. C : Clears the matrix. ^U : Retrieves the previous matrix - useful if you mistakenly cleared the matrix. ^G : In contrast to ^U, ^G retrieves the previous Get character. It will be useful for editing several characters at once. See Observation BOX below, pg. 12. You can move an entire character around: U : Up one row. D : Down one row. L : Left one column R : Right one column. F : Flips the character over. M : Mirrors the character. You can also move a selected Quadrant of the character. To do this you first select the Quadrant by placing the cursor at the desired coordinate and then hitting: F3 : Upper Left quadrant. F4 : Upper Right quadrant. F5 : Lower Left quadrant. F6 : Lower right quadrant. Once selected move the section with any of the six move commands (U,D, L,R,F,M). To return to editing in full matrix hit CR. This capability will help you in converting NLQ to proportional - or the reverse. Hitting C in a quadrant will clear the quadrant and return to the Matrix. You can move a single column or row, or a part of either. The following commands move a row or column away from or toward the cursor: move a column F7 Up from cursor F8 Down toward cursor F9 Down from cursor F10 Up toward cursor move a row Page: 24 ^F7 Right from cursor ^F8 Right toward cursor ^F9 Left from cursor ^F10 Left toward cursor To move an entire column up place the cursor in the bottom space of the column and hit F7 and to do the reverse place the cursor at the top and hit F9. Try it out. Character combinations. Characters can be combined via boolean sets. A, X, and O. By hitting one of these keys you will be asked for another character to combine with what you have in the matrix. (And): combines the two with what one shares with the other. (XOr): combines the two with what they do not share. (Or) : adds the two together - this latter is by far the most useful. ^I allows you to import a character and add it to what is in the matrix (cf. below). The two Or commands (O and ^I) are the most useful in creating characters. For example, to make a bold version of a character move it to the left two spaces and then Or it with itself. When making a set of letters with the same diacritic create the diacritic separately and then Or it with the each of the letters. CAUTION: The O (Or), X (XOr) and ^I combinations violate the constraint of the matrix: adjacent columns. So you must edit your O, X, ^I combinations to conform to the contraint yourself. Alt M : will set it so that the opposite vertical cell to the cursor will be marked as well as the cell under the cursor. Alt F : will set it so that the opposite horizonatal cell as well as the cell under the cursor. Alt M and Alt F together will set it to mark both the opposite corners as well as the diagonally opposing corner. The figure is based on the matrix's center, but when finished it can be moved elsewhere. Hit Alt M or Alt F (as the case may be) a second time to turn off the extra markings. P or + : to print out a sample of your character. You will be asked if you want to compare it with another character. If not, just hit CR. If you wish to compare it against another user made character be sure to download the file before printing. Page: 25 The character being tested is sent to the printer at ASCII location 127. If this doen't work with your printer you can alter it at the main menu with M,R and save your changes in the LQX.DEF file. ^P : to make an overprint test. This will be useful when you are designing diacritics, accents or under markings. You will be asked what character to backup over. Thus if you are designing a circumflex ^ and wish to try it over an e then, after hitting ^P, type in e to print out a trial: ê. When designing accents to be used in proportional writing the spacing of the accent must match the spacing of the character. ^Y : will print out to matrix giving the cross hatch lines. Useful for comparison with other characters in the font. Z : expanded type. Z will switch the print trial character size between the default and the wide - expanded. S : to save a character hit S. You will be asked to assign it a place with either a character or an ASCII number, depending on your setting. If the character is already in the file you will be given the choice of assigning your character elsewhere or overwriting what is already there. All LQ printers will accept downloaded characters assigned to the usual ASCII locations: 33 (!) to 126 (~). The Epson LQ printers automatically turn a character assigned above ASCII 127 (the upper ASCII) into Italics. That is, if you assign a character to say ASCII 200 it will store it in the lower range (200-128=72='H') and print it out as an Italic when called with ASCII 200 and as a Roman (or whatever) when called by ASCII 72. Some of the control character locations (1 - 7, 16 - 19, 25, 26, 28 - 31 for the old LQ1500) can serve for downloading. But be careful when assigning characters to the 1-31 range. Although the printer might accept them, your word processor could be using the controls for other purposes. The default ASCII range for LQMATRIX is 1-127. It is up to you to determine what your printer will accept. (Check with the printer manual to make sure, or systematically try each location - though be prepared for something weird happening.) The Epson LQ500 printer accepts only ASCII 33 through 127, while the NEC P2200 permits downloaded to most (if not all) of the upper ASCII locations. You can set limits with the 'Alter ASCII range' from the Print menu (see pg. 5 above). G : to retrieve a character from memory. Enter the desired character in the query box. Page: 26 F1 : retrieve a character with the cursor. The cursor moves to the key listing in the upper right of the screen. You move around either with the cursor keys (or the numbers 4, 8, 6, 2) or by hitting the desired character. As you move the character under the cursor will appear in the matrix. When you find the character you want hit return and it will appear in the Matrix. You will need this function in combined files where the same character has been used twice. At such times it is essential to reassign one of them to a new place. Thus if there are, say, two a's then you fetch one of them with the cursor. When it is in the matrix immediately reassign it to another place with the S (save) command. You may exit without retrieving by hitting ESC. I : Import a character from another file. First you will be asked what character you want imported. Then you will be asked which file to search. The import filename remains in memory so if you ask for a second character you need not reenter the name. If the file doesn't exist or the requested character is not in it - you will be returned with a nothing found message. You can import a character from any size file (NLQ to Proportional etc). When you wish to make the mix be sure to add the extension (.LQP, etc) to the filename of the import file. ^I : OR import. This imports a character from another file and super imposes it on what is already in the Matrix. (It is equivalent to the (O)r command (noted above) except that it brings in the character from another file). OBSERVATION BOX To develop a consistant font it is important to compare a character under creation with one or more others that are finished, or are also being developed. To aid in the comparisons LQMATRIX has an 'observation BOX' that places a character to the right of the editor's matrix. The observation BOX has several commands: Alt B: Moves the character in the matrix into the observation BOX. Hit Alt B again and the box will disappear being replaced either the help screen or the listing of the file contents. Alt R: Will switch the contents of the BOX with the editor's matrix. With this you can develop and edit two characters at the same time making fine adjustments first on one, then on the other. When you are ready to save the contents of the BOX bring it over to the editor's matrix and save it with 'S'. ^R: Brings back the previous contents of the BOX. It works like ^U and ^G. Page: 27 Alt O, Alt A, Alt X will combine the BOX with the contents of the matrix. They work exactly the same as O,A, and X described above. By using the BOX you can actually work with four characters at a time. The two undo commands, ^G, ^R and the switch command, Alt R permit you to do this. To set up the four proceed as follows (let's use the characters 1,2,3,4): Get 1, using G Put 1 into the BOX, using Alt B Get 2, using G Put 2 into the BOX, using Alt R (NOT Alt B) Get 3, using G Get 4, using G Now you will see in front of you 4 in the matrix and 2 in the BOX. To call 1 into the BOX use ^R and to call 3 into the matrix use ^G. ^R again will bring back 2 and ^G again will bring back 4. Anytime you want to edit the BOX bring it into the matrix with Alt R. Not bad. Try it and see for yourself! ^D : to delete. You will be asked which character to delete. If you are toggled for ASCII then enter its number, otherwise enter the character. You will be given the option of changing your mind with the warning: Deleting * char * Are you sure? <Y/N> ^X : to delete with the cursor. This works like F1, though to delete rather than fetch. A delete warning will appear and a chance to change your mind will be given. This will allow you to delete one of double character assignments that has resulted from combining files. You may exit the routine without deleting by hitting ESC. / : Toggles Char/ASCII. You can change from the characters to their ASCII numbers - You will know which is operating by the listing of what is in the file (upper right of screen). When fetching or deleting you will designate the character by either the char or ASCII, one or the other, but not both. Use the ASCII input for control, etc. locations. ? : Replaces the Help screen with the listing of file contents. W : Indicates the current width of the character in the matrix. In the query box you will see: max_left width max_right z x y with x being the width and z and y being the maximum available left and right spacing. Page: 28 F2 : [For proportional mode only] Toggles between automatic and manual control of proportional spacing. Automatic (AUTO) spacing is the default. AUTO will automatically give the left and right spacing to a character in conformity to the system used with the ROM characters where the total width will be 18, 24, 30, 36 or 42 (/360ths of an inch) depending on the width of the character. The SPACE option permits closer control over the width of a character. When the toggle is set to Space you will be asked each time you save a character, or print it out from the matrix, how many spaces you want to the left and then to the right. The maximum available space is indicated. In the query box you will first see something like: middle: 30 | left: 5 | enter new 3 [with the cursor resting on the 3] Middle equals the width of the character, left equals the maximum available spaces to the left and enter new gives you the opportunity of changing the previously recorded left spacing. Enter a new number or leave it as was and hit CR then you will see: middle: 30 | left: 5 | enter new 3 right: 7 | enter new 3 repeat for the right side and hit CR to see (if no changes were made): 3 | 30 | 3 total: 36 ok? Y/N Y will accept and store the width markings and return to an empty matrix. N will repeat the routine permitting you to recycle the space routine. A simple CR or ESC will take you back to the matrix cancelling the entire Save. A NOTE ABOUT SPACING. With Draft and NLQ all characters have the same width, in proportional the width varies from character to character. The width of a character consists of the character itself and spacing to the left and the right. The maximum total spacing can be 42 with a character 37 spaces wide and left and right spacing being 2 and 3 respectively. If you look at the width table that comes in your LQ printer manual you will see that the narrowist characters have a width of 18: including | and i and the broadest have the maximum possible of 42: W, w, m. You will also note that total widths are even numbers and that they Page: 29 vary in total width by increments of 6: 18, 24, 30, 36 and 42. The auto-spacing follows this pattern. Width numbers are reckoned in 1/360th of an inch, so that the widest character, including its space is 42/360th of an inch. The exact width of a character becomes crucial when it comes to justified (right) printing. In order to make your word processor justify your characters correctly (and it is the word processor and NOT the printer that controls justification) you will have to find the width table that the processor uses when it prints to a LQ printer. When you find the table go to the ASCII number that has been assigned to your character and make the width there the same width, left+middle+right, that you designated for the character (count the exact width of the character itself, then add to it what you entered for left and right spacing). Character width is printed along with the character when you print the file contents <F> from the main menu. Take an example with PC-WRITE (read this in conjunction to what I say below about using PC-WRITE): The first thing you will see in the PR.DEF file are a whole lot of lines like this: @A:91=24,92=30,93=24,94=30,95=30,96=18,97=30,98=36,99=30,100=36 The first bunch start with @B: and the equivalents there have to do with the sub/super script fonts. The second (@A:) set have to do with the regular porportional fonts. Now, go the the @A section and find the ASCII location for your character, NOT the ASCII location in your LQP file, but the one that you told your word processor to use for the character. Let's say you have assigned a character (in PC- Write) to ASCII 239, the croquet hoop. If your character has a width of 36 then go to 239 and fix it to look like 239=36. Now PC-Write will know how to count the value of your homemade character first when word wrapping, then when printing. Justified margins are created by micro-spacing the spaces between words and the spaces between letters. The LQ can advance the print head in increments of 180th of an inch. Taking this into account the print driver first counts the letters on a line summing them up by a factor of each character's width. This sum is subtracted from the total width of the line and the leftover space is divided by the spaces between words on the line with the result being the amount of space alotted to each space. The space width is then divided by two - to get from 360th to 180th (hence the need for even widths) and when each time a space comes up the printer is sent the code <esc>,'/' spacewith, #0. The spacing between letters code is <esc>,'·',separation. In programming justification you have to juggle the two types of microspaces. Not all word processors do [most don't I Page: 30 believe] (PC-Write does not). Spaces between words is the one that is commonly used. That's a lot of huffing and puffing, but the results are impressive especially when both operations are used together! A caution about DIACRITICS. If you are planning to have accent marks where you use a backspace (#8) command, that is if you want to print a character, back up, and print another character (accent) over (or under) it, it is essential, in proportional, that both characters, the letter and the accent, have the exact same width. The built in letter e has a width of 30. If you want to make your own circumflex it is essential that it too has the width of 30. This means that you might have to make several versions of the same accent, one of width 18 to go over i, another of 30 to go with e, a and o and finally a third of width 36 to go over u. For my work I, in fact, use the back up routine over the e, o, a letters and have separate single characters for accented i and u. I have assigned the four i's (i acute, grave, umlaut and circumflex) to i, 1, 2, 3, respectively in my .LQP file). In such a circumstance the upper ASCII characters are rerouted by the print driver to RAM and the appropriate i, 1, 2, and 3. (The four u's are assigned to RAM u,4,5,6) Q : Quit - gets you out of the matrix and back to the main menu. Page: 31 ADDENDA 1. I include a small program called FX_LQ.EXE. This will allow you to convert a *.FXF file to a *.LQ?. It is there under the thought that you might have the former and want to convert them to the latter. When you bring up the program you are first asked for a FXF file to convert. Next you will be asked which LQ format (Draft, NLQ, Proportional) to use. If you chose NLQ or Proportional you will then be asked whether you want the LQ characters to be centered or not. FX characters are usually built from the left hand side while LQ characters are built from the center. If you have special characters of some sort or other you might not wish to have them centered, hence the option. Caution: the end result will be MERELY THE OUTLINE of a character and you will need to fill it in before it is usable. Although the LQ draft character aren't much different than FXF. Versions previous to 1.03 (march 89) will not, due to a miscalculation, download (via LQ) to the printer. Subsequent versions will. 2. I also include LQASCII.COM that converts a binary file (.LQP .LQN, or .LQD) to an ASCII text (.LAP, .LAN, or .LAD) - or the reverse. This permits you to inspect the material sent to the printer which is made up of: Line 1: ASCII number for the character, line 2: start column, left, middle (character width) right. (Note that the start variable is NOT downloaded to the printer. It is necessary, however, for the data types used by LQ and LQMATRIX). Next come the column bytes that define the character (3 numbers per line). [Since there are 24 rows in LQ printing each column requires 3 bytes (24/8) of information to print.) The program permits you to inspect the numerical information sent to the printer and, more importantly, permits you to transfer the file from one DOS system to another (CP/M <-> DOS, etc.). [Bear in mind that for a full sized font the ASCII text takes up over 50K of disk space.] It should be useful as well when you wish to change the ASCII assignment for any character. 3. LQCONVRT.EXE. This is a command line program that will permit you to convert a NLQ (LQN) font to a Proportional (LQP) font or the reverse. At the prompt (A>) enter LQCONVRT [fontname] where fontname is the full name (extension included) of the font to convert: GOTHIC.LQP, IPA1.LQN etc. Hit return and the program will create a font with the same name but with the new extension, e.g. GOTHIC.LQN, IPA1.LQP. If a target Page: 32 font already exists you will be given the choice to abort or to overwrite. The converted font will need editing. Moving a NLQ to proportional will merely put the NLQ into the Prop matrix. The left and right spaces will be the same for each character. The letters will each have to a fattened and saved. The best way to do this is with reference to the proportional width tables in your Printer manual. The Quadrant move in the editor will allow you to do the fattening. The move from Proportional to NLQ is trickier. To begin with many of the proportional fonts will be too wide. NLQ has a maximum of 29 columns, Proportional 37. To manage 8 column discrepancy LQCONVRT automatically eliminates columns as needed in this order: 8 30 2 36 18 25 14 20 These eliminations will violate the column contraints and the new characters will have to be carefully edited. ****** LQCONVRT can be used for the abandoned FIXLQN.EXE. Previous to 1990 (in pre 4x versions) LQN fonts used the same data type as proportional. As far as the current LQMATRIX is concerned, therefore, these old LQN files are LQP files with the wrong extension. To correct this proceed as follows: For old font X.LQN: 1. change the name to X.LQP with the DOS ren command: REN X.LQN X.LQP. 2. run LQCONVRT X.LQP and a new X.LQN will produced. 3. finally, DELete the X.LQP. Page: 33 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS and Font Explanations Pop-up menus and fast screen writing procedures were supplied by Borland International in WIN.PAS, Window interface unit and WIN.ASM, assembler include file for WIN.PAS. Both copyrighted, 1989, by Borland International. Error catching and suggestions for improvements by Hermann Philipps (Germany), John Koontz, Andrew Emmerson (GB), Roger Tancrell, C. Ross Chamberlain, H.R. McDonald (Australia), Richard N. Wisan and Roy E. Hensel helped move the program away from a crude early version of many infelicities and as many bugs. ************* Each of the fonts took a lot of work to design, so our special thanks to each of the designers. The font contributions are: H.L. Phillips of Frankfurt supplied the GOTHIC.LQP. The s that looks like f (but not quite) is stored in the @ location. It is used in word initial position. Mr. Phillips also supplied the LARGO.LQP font. I have edited both fonts slightly to make the widths conform to the default equivalents. The Rev. William Moorhead of Oskaloosa, Iowa supplied GREEK.LQN and SPEAKER.LQP. Before using the former font be sure to read Rev. Moorhead's documentation: GREEK.DOC. The GREEK included here is a slightly revised version of the one distributed earlier. Rev Moorhead writes: "(GREEK.DOC) ... includes the notes that on the whole this font seems to look better when printed at 12 cpi than at 10. Also, if one's w-p will support italics on one's printer (as MS-Word does on the LQ-850), the Greek font looks rather nice in italics. That's done by formatting from software. "SPEAKER is an o·versized sans-serif font for speech manuscripts. (The idea is something similar to "Orator" and "Presentor" in the typewriter world.) In printing this font, one should probably use space-and-a-half or double spacing, since the letters are 23 pins high." Mr. Dale Koepp of San Jose, CA provides us with a handsome ITALIC font in proportional. He writes: "I did this because I didn't particularly like the Italic font on my LQ-800 printer, which is simply the standard font printed at an angle. The font I created is more of a true Page: 34 Italic font. The proportional characters are all the same width as the standard proportional characters, so there should be no problems with margin allignment, etc." RUSS.LQP (on the current disk) comes from Mr. May's STUDRUSS as it was edited by Mr. Davis (RUSSTWO.LQP). There is insufficient disk space for both. STUDRUSS.LQP, a Cyrillic alphabet, was originally designed by Mr. Ernest R. May of Cambridge, MA. It follows the student rather than the Standard Russian keyboard format. RUSS.LQP is a modification of STUDRUSS by Mr. J. William Davis of Greenville, SC who writes: 'I used STUDRUSS (the original) as a base, but revised almost all of the characters, using as a model an alphabet in an old Russian grammar I got about thirty years ago. I have never seen a Russian typewriter, either standard or student model, and no have no prejudices as to assignment of odd characters. However, I generally followed STUDRUSS except that I relocated most of the punctuation marks.' Mr. Chamberlain's fonts (with his comments): SINCERE. "This was 'expanded' from ALPHA.FXF and then 'bolded' by using the OR function on the same character displaced by two places. Some touching up was occasionally necessary." "I thought it vaguely reminiscent of a sans serif version of Souvenir." CLASSIC. "I wanted to do one strong, fairly standard Roman serif-style font. This came out with a slightly old- fashioned look." TYPER. "This is my attempt to do a proportional typerwriter- style font - sort of going back to the roots, as it were." ARTSY, SQUARE, ENGLISH, ZODIAC. SCRAWL. "The name is self-explanatory, but with the proportional spacing, I think this comes out rather pleasantly informal and surprisingly readable." ROSCRAFT. "I'd have called it 'RossCraft' (with two s's) if it weren't for the filename length restriction. I have used that name of the backs of greeting cards I designed..., and I thought this might be good for that same general kind of thing. It's small-and it works great on 8-lines per inch spacing." HAPIFACE. "Well ... We can't all be perfect. I had this idea some time ago, and developed it for a graphics-based 'typesetting' program I wrote for use on a Tandy Color Computer and a DMP-105 printer. So I had to try it here, Page: 35 too. It has been described as 'Terminally Cute'... true, it's not too readable.." ************ Mr. Richard N. Wisan fonts and his comments: On this disk are the following fixed-width LQ fonts. Each of them has a matching proportional font: ELITEQ.LQN is matched by ELITEP.LQP, etc. ELITEQ.LQN: resembles Epson's resident Roman font, but slightly reduced to suit elite spacing. SANSQ.LQN: is a sans serif font also intended for elite spacing. Having no serifs, its proportional version, SANSP.LQP is slightly narrower than ELITEP.LQP. FIFQ.LQN: is a slim font intended for 15 char/inch spacing. To maintain proper proportions, it's a little shorter, and can take line spacing less than 6/inch. CONDQ.LQN:* is a slightly smaller version of FIFQ, meant for condensed pica (17 or 18 char/inch) and vertical spacing of 1/8" or 23/180ths. WEEQ.LQN:* fits condensed elite (20 char/inch) at spacings down to about 20/180". Note: Starred (*) fonts are sized to be printed condensed. Printed in normal width, they look awful. ************ Mr. Hensel of Hensel Color Graphics supplies four fonts (they can be found on the font Disk (Disk #2) in the HENSEL directory. (From the prompt enter: CD HENSEL.) He supplies the following note (HENSEL.DOC): PFONT - Fonts by Roy E. Hensel Hensel Color Graphics RD4 Box 87 Cranbury, NJ 08512 The four fonts in the HENSEL directory were made from a different font editor (PFE) and converted to LQMATRIX. They were all written for the Epson LQ 850/1050 printers. All contain the space (ASCII 32) as a character which is acceptable on Epson printers. If the space should cause a problem with your printer see the LQMATRIX Manual for an explanation of how to change the ASCII Range. (Setp). Justified right margins with these four proportional fonts will require additional editing. The characters are not in Page: 36 the standard Epson spacing and some are not in even widths. By saving each character with the auto-spacing option the LQMATRIX program will assign the required even spacing. In addition, work will be necessary with your word processor as explained in the LQMATRIX Manual. The extra effort defeats the purpose of the simple, easy to use fonts. My preference is for ragged right margins unless the word processor has automatic hyphenation. The included fonts are as follows: COMIC.LQP was designed from the lettering of comic strips. All capital letters were used. This font has good readability. HENSEL.LQP is mostly my own design. Curved diagonals allow more open space within letters such as A and W which helps in making photo copies. While it was designed as a straight font it also doubles as a good italic font when the printer is set in the italic mode. HOBO.LQP is a bold special purpose font which has been used by printers for many years. It has no descenders. TECH.LQP was based on the hand lettering of a well known architect. It is suitable for informal occasions. If you like these fonts, PFONT, containing an additional 9 fonts should soon be available through SHAREWARE sources. These fonts are in the PFE format which should download to most of the same printers as LQMATRIX. If not, each disk will contain a program called PFE2LQ which will convert them to LQMATRIX. The shareware version contains a total of 12 fonts, but 3 of them are in the above group of 4. The registration version will contain no less than 21 fonts. The additional fonts on the shareware version of PFONT are: BLACK (black letter), CLASSICL, CSCRIPT (Chancery), COMPUTER, CURSIVE (Script), FORM, TYPE (1929 typewriter), TYPE2U, and TYPE3. If you cannot locate PFONT from shareware distributors, send $5.00 to Hensel Color Graphics (to cover costs) for the shareware version. **************************** PRES, PRES2 & SCRIPT, SCRIPT2 (LQN & LQP) were converted from ROM module cartridges. In using the LQN script set the printer to 12 cpi (elite) otherwise the letters will not join up. The *2.LQ? fonts contain the upper ASCII accented letters. BE CAREFUL, most (all?) printers will not accept them at their allotted locations (LQ-500 - won't accept any at all). The best bet is to use them as a library and import Page: 37 them into unused spaces in the lower range. I converted a font called NECDL.FNT to IPA1.LQN. The original was developed by Dr. Michael Henderson at the Department of Linguistics, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS and contains numerous useful IPA characters. I have arbitrarily assigned the characters to ASCII positions starting with 42 and ending with 93. You will want to import the characters into your own file. Perhaps someone out there will send me an IPA2 file to add some more IPA characters to a slowly growing library. **************************** The ultimate success of these programs is the accumulation of useful character files. Therefore, if you make any interesting LQP or LQN files I should very much like to have copies. I will add them to the distribution disk and return your disk with all recent updates. Anyone sending me full and usable Proportional or NLQ fonts for distribution will be added to my permanent mailing list, receiving updates without charge, revisions and new fonts as they come in or are created. Finally, my sincere thanks for everyone who has registered for these programs, as well as for the sister program, FXMATRIX. J.David Sapir. Page: 38 About the programmer. Sapir is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. He came to write FXMATRIX when he became impatient counting up column bytes and downloading them to the FX printer in BASIC. LQMATRIX was a conversion of FXMATRIX. Along the way he took a couple of undergraduate Computer Science courses, one on Data Structures and another on MicroComputer Architecture and Assembly Language. He will probably take some more when time permits. It was a curious sight to see an earnest professor sitting among (often bored) undergraduates. But it was a good experience and helped clear away some intellectual (anthropological) cobwebs. -----------------------------------------------------------------