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- THIS SOFTWARE IS FREEWARE: PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE, PLEASE SEND
- NO MONEY, BUT PLEASE INCLUDE ALL FILES WHEN DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE.
- ALSO, PLEASE SEND ANY SIGNIFICANTLY MODIFIED VERSIONS TO THE e-mail
- ADDRESS BELOW.
-
-
-
- PSET 1.0
-
- 23 Jan 1993
-
- Andrew Marchant-Shapiro
- marchana@gar.union.edu
- marchana@union.bitnet
-
- A utility for font selection in the Hewlett-Packard DeskJet series printers.
-
- REQUIREMENTS: 4DOS 4.00+
- A Deskjet series printer
-
- FILES: action0.........main menu
- actionp.........font menu
- down............envelope margins
- pset.btm........main program
- pset.cmd........commands to help set up MicroEMACS
- for editing envelope addresses.
- pset.doc........this file
-
-
- I. NOTE:
-
- If you don't have 4DOS installed, give up. This program relies heavily
- on 4DOS, the best thing you can do for DOS. So zap this file right now
- and give up if you don't have it. Better yet, install 4DOS, fall in
- love with it (it takes less than 5 minutes), and register it (it takes
- less than $70). THEN install this program. If you're a registered 4DOS
- user, read on...
-
- II. INTRODUCTION:
-
- PSET is a little utility I put together to make it easier to use my HP
- DeskJet 500 printer. When I bought it a few months ago, I thought that
- it would be nice to finally have access to more than two fonts (my old
- printer was a remarkably tough Okidata '92), but I soon found that there
- was no good software available to allow me to SELECT fonts in the
- printer.
-
- So, having recently become a registered user of 4DOS, I did what any
- insane person would do -- I wrote a font selector. While I was at it, I
- put in a few useful features -- the ability to set margins, print
- envelopes, reset the printer to my desired defaults, and turn text
- scaling on. The most commonly used functions appear in a 4DOS select
- window when you type PSET at the prompt (NOTE: PSET should be an alias
- that starts PSET.BTM from its own directory. This is because PSET.BTM
- uses SETLOCAL to locate its various files).
-
- III. THE PSET OPENING MENU:
-
- Below is what you'll see when you type PSET. Descriptions of functions
- follow:
-
- ┌──PSET───┐
- │Reset │
- │Fonts │
- │Envelope │
- │Margin │
- │Scaling │
- └─────────┘
-
- Position the cursor bar to select from among these functions:
-
- Reset
- Reset allows you to send a string out to the printer to set it the way
- you like it. As distributed, the reset string sets the printer up with
- no margin, text scaling off, perforation skip on (for a total of 60
- lines per page), clears the buffer, and selects the 10 point/12 cpi
- Prestige Elite font (from the 22706B cartridge). You can easily edit
- this string to provide your choice of defaults. After sending the reset
- string, PSET prints a message to the effect that the printer has been
- reset, and then exits.
-
- Fonts
- Fonts takes you to the FONTS menu, described in more detail below.
-
- Envelope
- Envelope sets the printer for envelope printing (again, in Prestige
- Elite type) and asks you to load an envelope (this cannot be done
- through HP-PCL, as far as I know). It prints a file of carriage returns
- (DOWN) to put a reasonable margin on the envelope. It then starts an
- editor -- the distributed version is set up to work with MicroEMACS --
- writing directly to the printer. If you use another editor, make the
- appropriate changes, or use an old (i.e., small) version of VDE or
- something. You enter the address in the editor, then save and exit. If
- your editor can write directly to the printer, then you're all set. If
- it can't, you'll have to add the necessary lines to have it write to a
- file and then copy that file out to the printer. Once the address is
- printed, PSET resets the printer and takes you back to the main menu.
-
- Margin
- Margin will simply ask you for a number and set the margin to that
- number of characters. Note that it will use whatever character width is
- in effect AT THE TIME THAT YOU MAKE THIS SELECTION. So, if you have a
- 10 cpi font selected and choose a margin of 10, and then select a 24 cpi
- font, the margin will remain 10x10cpi=1 inch wide. After setting the
- margin, you are returned to the main menu.
-
- Scaling
- One problematic feature of the DJ is its inability to print on the
- bottom of the page, and its automatic 1/2-inch top margin. These
- combine to limit you to 60 lines per page, unless you toggle the
- perforation skip and text scaling features, either by switches in the
- printer or through software. Perf Skip can be toggled to give you 63
- lines per page, by turning off the top margin. Text Scale squeezes the
- text so that 63 lines can fit on a normal DJ page. This option combines
- the two functions so that you can get 66 lines per page, even leaving a
- 1/2-inch bottom margin. After selecting this option, you are returned
- to the main menu.
-
- Escape
- Pressing the escape key at the main menu allows you to exit without
- making any changes.
-
- IV. THE PSET FONTS MENU:
-
- ┌STYLE─────────CPI┐
- │─────portrait────│
- │Prestige Elite 12│
- │Prestige Elite 24│
- │Letter Gothic 12│
- │Letter Gothic 24│
- │Courier 5│
- │Courier 10│
- │Courier 17│
- │Courier 20│
- │CG Times PS│
- │────landscape────│
- │Courier 10l│
- │Courier 17l│
- │Courier 20l│
- └ ^v, <─┘ or Esc ─┘
-
- The Fonts menu is, again, a simple-minded thing. Just choose the
- particular font you want, and press return. PSET will print a message
- telling you what you selected, and take you back to the main menu. From
- there, you can make more changes or just ESCape. If you ESCape from
- the font menu, PSET will tell you that you haven't changed a font, but
- won't try to stop you. Selecting the portrait or landscape bars has no
- effect -- they're just there to make it clear which fonts are which.
-
- By the way, these are NOT all the fonts that are available on a DJ500
- with a Prestige Math cartridge -- just the ones that I thought I would
- find most useful. It should be simple enought to tailor this list to
- what you have in your printer. If necessary, you can even scroll the
- menu up and down (4DOS's select function allows for this).
-
- V. MAKING PSET WORK FOR YOU:
-
- You'll have to do some things if you aren't using pretty much the same
- setup I have, but they're minor.
-
- FIRST: There is a CD command in PSET.BTM, the third line. Right now,
- it goes to \bin\pset. Change it to point to the directory into which
- you place the files in this archive.
-
- SECOND: Make sure that you either edit PSET.BTM to replace the EMACS...
- command line, or make sure you have an editor called EMACS in your path
- that can handle writing directly to the printer (in case you're using
- MicroEMACS 3.11, which I recommend you do, I've included a short set of
- commands (@PSET.CMD) to make things easier)).
-
- THIRD: Edit the various strings in PSET.BTM and ACTIONP (the font
- menu) to match your printer setup. Pay particular attention to the
- reset string -- it should match either your printer defaults or any
- defaults that you setup at boot time (through your AUTOEXEC.BAT file).
-
- VI. EXCUSES:
-
- PSET contains some really, really, incredibly sloppy code. I know. I
- haven't bothered to clean it up because it WORKS, as it is, and it has
- grown a little at a time, in odd ways, ever since I first put it
- together. If I have time, someday, I'd like to make the code pretty,
- and perhaps incorporate the printer control strings into the menu file
- (it would make things nicely modular). But I'm trying to finish a
- social science dissertation, so don't expect PSET 2.0 for a long time,
- maybe never.
-
- VII. WARNING:
-
- When setting up PSET for your DJ500, be very careful about the order in
- which you place commands. Just like the LaserJet, the DJ is finicky
- about syntax, and the wrong order can make it ignore one or more
- commands very easily, resulting in your getting output that you didn't
- want. HP-PCL has a very precise, if arcane, syntax -- check out your
- printer manual. It presents the escape codes in the order in which they
- must be sent to be properly recognized.
-
- VIII. WARRANTY:
-
- Absolutely None. Nothing express or implied. This is freeware, and it
- is up to you to decide whether or not you want to risk using it. Don't
- call me. Etc. Enough said?
-