This article contains a series of programs and other hints to assist
you in having your Epson printer print graphics.  Many of these will work with
Star Gemini printers too; I believe the Star does not need to be "turned on" to
accept graphic characters.  Most of what follows is from the Epson printer
manual; but it takes time to find and understand it and get the stuff in one's
machine. It's pretty much all here: just copy and paste out the programs to use
them.

	The main point is this: the GRPH and CODE keys on the computer generate
codes; those are transmitted to the printer; the printer interprets them
differently than does the LCD sceen. So know your translation table.  E.g.
"graph p" on the keyboard puts a phone on the screen; but this prints as a
graphic cross. Different printers will print different characters.


Translation Table.

	Look up in the Epson manual the "dec" (decimal) code for the "special
graphic characters". I.e. for a little airplane it's 151.  Look up in the
computer handbook what makes code 151 (it's "GRAPH .").  So putting a "GRAPH ."
[holding down the GRAPH key and hitting the 'period' key] in your document will
print out a little plane on paper. That's all there is to it.

	One problem: GRAPH t, which translates to a printed left-hand corner of
a box, won't work through SuperRom or WriteRom, because GRAPH t has a special
function in that software. If you need that graphic character, print outside of
WriteRom.

	I photocopied the Epson manual's display of special graphic characters,
wrote in the GRAPH keys to generate those, and have it next to my desk. --
Recommended.


Getting Epson to Understand Graphics.

	The printer doesn't understand graphics until you turn it on with a
so-called "escape sequence".  This is the program to RUN:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27)+"m"+CHR$(4);:MENU

	You only need run this once for every time the printer is turned on.

	Tony Anderson says the following sequence embedded in your text will
also turn on the ability to read graphic characters:

control-p; ESC; lower case m; control-p; control-D. 

Then print using the F3 button, save to "LPT:"  I prefer RUNing the little
program above once in the morning before I fire up the word processor.


	If you wish to make boxes or otherwise have printed graphic lines
vertically touching each other, you must adjust the line feed. RUN this program
to close up the line feeds:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"1":MENU


	The following program resets the printer, that is, it kills the ability
to understand graphics and puts the line feed back to the way it normally is:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27)"@":MENU


Making Your Own Graphic Characters.

	Design your own graphic characters. The Epson manual tells you how: 
Here are the programs. Run the first one to get the DATA to insert in the
second one. (The manual's discussion is not repeated here.)

To generate data numbers:

100 DIM F(9)
110 FOR I=1TO9
120 PRINT"Which rows have dots in column";I:PRINT"[0 if no more]
130 INPUT R:IF R=0 THEN 150
140 F(I)=F(I)+2^(R-1)
150 IF R=0 THENNEXT I ELSEGOTO130
160 LPRINT CHR$(27)":"CHR$(0)CHR$(0)CHR$(0);
170 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(1)CHR$(0);
180 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(0)"<<";
190 LPRINT CHR$(128);
200 FOR X=1TO9
210 LPRINT CHR$(F(X));:NEXT X
220 LPRINT CHR$(0)CHR$(0);
230 LPRINT "Your charcter in pica:< < <"
240 LPRINT "IN EXPANDED EMPHasized PICA: ";
250 LPRINT CHR$(27)"!*< < <"
260 LPRINT CHR$(27)"!"CHR$(0)"Your data numbers:"
270 FOR K=1TO9:LPRINTF(K);:NEXT K
300 END

Take the DATA numbers from the above program and replace the DATA numbers in
line 210 of the following program; RUNning this program will set the new
character into the printer's memory and give you the keyboard character to hit
to get your invented character:

90 FORP=58TO63:LPRINT CHR$(P);:NEXT P
100 K=1:IFK>3THENA=58ELSE A=60
110 LPRINT CHR$(27)":"CHR$(0)CHR$(0)CHR$(0);
120 LPRINT CHR$(27)"%"CHR$(1)CHR$(0);
130 LPRINT CHR$(27)"&"CHR$(0)CHR$(A)CHR$(A-1+K);
140 FOR Z=1TOK
150 LPRINT CHR$(128);
160 FOR X=1TO9
170 READ R
180 LPRINT CHR$(R);:NEXT X
190 LPRINT CHR$(0)CHR$(0);
200 NEXT Z
210 DATA 56,0,60,0,56,0,60,0,56
290 FOR P=58TO63:LPRINT CHR$(P);:NEXT P
300 MENU


Embedded codes.

	See Phil Wheeler's (71266,125) EMBED.TXT in this data library to get 
the keystrokes to generate emphasized, underlined italics, wide, super- and
sub-script. If you have WriteRom etc you can program some CODE keys to do this.
If you want more than WriteRom allows, create a LIBRARY file to store the
keystroke sequences.

	Please let me know if you questions or anything to add. I'll update
this file as stuff comes in.

	Curtis Karnow 73047,3120



Copyright 1987, Curtis Karnow