Star Micronics 4111 Applications Manual
  1. Manuals
  2. Brands
  3. Star Micronics Manuals
  4. Printer
  5. 4111
  6. Applications manual
Star Micronics 4111 Applications Manual

Star Micronics 4111 Applications Manual

Star micronics laser printer applications manual
Hide thumbs
Table of Contents

Advertisement

Quick Links

Download this manual
APPLICATIONS MANUAL
80821885

Advertisement

Table of Contents
loading

Related Manuals for Star Micronics 4111

Summary of Contents for Star Micronics 4111

  • Page 1 APPLICATIONS MANUAL 80821885...
  • Page 2 LaserPrinter 4111:Star Micronics Co,, Ltd. PageMaker: Aldus Corporation Applesoft: Apple Computer Inc. Bitstream: Bitstream Inc. Canon: Canon Inc. HP, LaserJet: Hewlett-Packard Company LaserControl: Insight Development Inc. IBM PC: International Business Machines Corp. Century Schoolbook: Linotype Corporation Lotus 1-2-3:Lotus Development Corporation...
  • Page 3 About this manual This Star Lu.~erPrinter4111 Application.~Manual gives you the information you need to program the Star Micronics LaserPrinter 4111. Why would you read this book? Most people using a laser printer just run software packages with built-in printer drivers, which look after everything their computers send their printers.
  • Page 4 What’s in this manual? In “Getting to Know Your Star LaserPrinter 4111” we provide a list of the features that make this a splendid printer, to help you choose which features you want to exploit. There’s a bit on how laser printers work, inside and out.
  • Page 5 So to use this Applications Manual best, make sure you understand that Operations Manual first. Your OperationsMattual holds essential information about the LaserPrinter 4111. s uch as how to: unpack and set up your laser printer, connect the Star LaserPrinter 4111to your computer’s serial or parallel port.

  • Page 6: Table Of Contents

    TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Getting to know Your Star LaserPrinter 4111... 1 1.1 Star LaserPrinter 4111 Hardware ... 1 1,2 Star Laserprinter 4111 software ...,,...5 2. Controlling Your Printer ... 13 2. I Printer Parameters ..13 2.2 Controlling the Printer ... 16 2.3 Controlling the Page ...20...
  • Page 7 6. Technical Supplement ... 129 6.1 CommandSummary... 129 6.2 Symbol sets ... 134 Index ... 165...

  • Page 9: Getting To Know Your Star Laserprinter 4111

    Getting b KnoW’Yow Star LaserPrinte~ 4111 This chapter introduces both the hardware and software aspects of the Star LaserPrinter 4111’spersonality, from fonts and print engine to ASCII and Escape sequences. 1.1 STAR LASERPRINTER 4111 H ARDWARE 1.1.1 Versatility Your Star Micronics Star LaserPrinter 4111works with practically all commercial software programs and computers.
  • Page 10 Courier Li ne Printer Font Besides these, you may be able to use optional cartridges and disks to give your Star LaserPrinter 4111 a variety of extra fonts, such as these: Prestige fonts Letter Gothic fonts H Gothic fonts Roman fonts...
  • Page 11 LaserPrinter 4111Operations Manual. 1.1.4 The Star LaserPrinter 4111 i s a computer The Star LaserPrinter 4111 first maps the characters to be printed into its own random access memory (RAM). That is, the printer builds.a “picture” in its memory corresponding to the page you want to print. When that’s done the printer can reproduce the page onto paper on its own, letting your computer get on with other work.
  • Page 12 An Intel 80960SA computer chip controls both the memory and the printing mechanism in the printer, called the print engine. The printer stores a whole page in RAM before printing it. (If a page is so dense that it overflows memory —amost unlikely event —the Star LaserPrinter4HI prints the page on two sheets.) 1.1.5 The Print engine...

  • Page 13: Star Laserprinter 4111 Software

    1.2 STAR LASERPRINTER 4111 S OFTWARE 1.2.1 Binary and hexadecimal arithmetic If you already know what hexadecimal numbers are, you can skip this section and go ahead to read about ASCII. The decimal number system with which we’re all familiar is a positional counting system.
  • Page 14 1.2.2 The ASCII table Where does the Star LaserPrinter 4111 get the characters and instructions it needs to print in the first place? It gets them from your computer, which sends a stream of text and commands to your printer.
  • Page 15 So the laser printer understands the symbolJas 01001010, which we can also represent as the decimal number 74 or the hexadecimal number 4A. We’ve printed this byte vertically and horizontally below, showing how it adds up to decimal 74 and hex 4A. —...
  • Page 16 1.2.3 Control codes The ASCII table shows symbols like.Jor2 the way they actually print on the laser printer. But ASCII includes more than just printable characters: none of the control code commands at the beginning of the table actually print. Instead, when your computer sends a control code to the laser printer it makes your printer do other things, such as sound its beeper.
  • Page 17 Many programs ask you to install or configure your printer, which usually means keying into a menu the particular setup information describing your Star LaserPrinter 4111. Y ou enter such things as how you want to underline, alter line spacing, or move to a new print position.
  • Page 18 1.2.6 Sending your own printer commands Without a printer driver, sending control codes and Escape sequences to your printer properly requires some knowledge of a programming language like BASIC or Pascal, or at least of how to put such codes into a program. With programming languages, the computer doesn’t act on the commands you put into a program until you tell it to run that program.
  • Page 19 Macros are single control codes you can define yourself, which do the work of a whole long series of printer commands. If you are a programmer you will be happy to hear the Star LaserPrinter 4111 supports up to 99 macros at once.
  • Page 20 MEMO...

  • Page 21: Controlling Your Printer

    2.1 PRINTER PARAMETERS 2.1.1 The control panel The easiest way to control your Star LaserPrinter 4111 is through its control panel, as explained in your Star LaserPrinter 4111Operations Manual. When your printer is onfine (connected to and under the control of your computer), its control panel display shows you the printer’s status.
  • Page 22 2.1.3 Four versions of parameters The Star LaserPrinter 4111 actually stores four versions of these parameters: its “ultimate default” factory settings, the user default settings in effect when you first turn on the printer, your initial settings for one particular session, and the current settings that the printer is using now.
  • Page 23 When you turn on the printer, these user default settings get copied into the initial and current parameter settings. You probably will not often change the Star LaserPrinter 4111’s initial set- tings (sometimes called “session settings”). You’11 likely only change them when you want to use a different printer emulation than normal.

  • Page 24: Controlling The Printer

    It’s actually pretty easy. Flipping through and setting parameters from the panel is described in detail in the Star LaserPt”inter 4111 Operations Manual. Basically, all you do is press the [<] or [>] buttons to scroll through the se- quence of possible parameters and values, which is clearly shown on the panel display.
  • Page 25 Most MS-DOS and AT-compatible computers support up to three parallel and two serial ports, which come on expansion boards you plug into your computer. When you install such boards you must set switches to indicate the number and addresses of these ports. If you specify the wrong addresses, you won’t be able to print.
  • Page 26 You’ll also have to indicate if your computer sends two stop bits to indicate the end of a byte, instead of one, the default. These serial interface settings are described in more detail in your Star LaserPrinter 4111Operations Manual. Serial interface: protocol Finally, in Serial mode your computer will use one of two protocols to ensure data is sent properly.

  • Page 27: Character Group

    If your Star LaserPrinter 4111 doesn’t print what’s on the computer screen, recheck your connections and interface settings. With an applications program like Lotus 1-2-3 or Microsoft Word, you use a printer setup routine to match your computer with your printer’s operating characteristics. So double-check your software settings;...

  • Page 28: Controlling The Page

    In this section we look at two controls you have over how the Star LaserPrinter 4111 handles and formats its pages: You can set values for the PAPER FEED and LAYOUT parameters on the control panel. At the end of this section we’ll also preview different ways to move the print position.
  • Page 29 2.3.2 Hints: Pape6 labels and transparencies The best paper for the Star LaserPrinter 4111 has a smooth finish and is of 60 to 105 g/mz (20 to 24 pound) weight. Any paper designed for photo- copiers should do the trick though; Xerox 4024 and Canon NPprint nicely.
  • Page 30 You probably won’t use the LAYOUT parameter on the control panel’s program menu very much though. Most of the time you’ll either leave the Star LaserPrinter 4111 with its default settings, or look after page formatting with commands you send from your computer.
  • Page 31 All internal fonts, and almost all cartridge and downloaded fonts, are stored in the Star LaserPrinter 4111 with portrait orientation. Margins, columns and lines You can change margin settings for all four edges of a page. The left and right side margins can have values from Oto 132, defining the margin columns between which words and images can be printed.
  • Page 32 (handy for tables and blank forms, or making room for your diagrams). But those aren’t all. You can tell the Star LaserPrinter 4111 to move the print position vertically or horizontally in increments of: 1/10, 1/12 or similar fractions of an inch (pitch settings),...

  • Page 33: Controlling The Printing

    Lines and used by earlier computer printers (on which they are called horizontal and vertical motion indexes). You already know about the Star LaserPrinter 4111 being able to print 300dots to the inch. And the unit by which typesettershave...

  • Page 34: The Star Laserprinter 4111 Superset

    But maybe the software you use doesn ‘t have printer drivers for any printer your Star LaserPrinter 4111 emulates: You still might not have to write printer commands yourself. Several companies sell programs that look after laser-printing commands for such software.

  • Page 35: Fonts

    With the Star LaserPrinter 4111 you can have different stroke weights in two ways. You can have two different fonts, storing and switching between a bold and a medium version of the font.
  • Page 36 Italic characters (sometimes called “oblique”) are slanted. Ordinary upright characters are often called “roman”. Your Star LaserPrinter 4111 comes with abuilt-in uprightCouriertypeface.Moreover,fromany ofthe StarLaserPrinter 4111’sbuilt-in typefaces you can select a subset of upright symbols called Roman-8.
  • Page 37 The o has been kerned closer to the f. size and type~ace. Proportional spacing L;ading is the baseline to baseline measurement. 3.1.3 Font spacing and pitch You probably first heard the word pitch in connection with typewriters. Typewriters normally use monospaced spacing: they give each character the same amount of space on the line.

  • Page 38: How The Star Laserprinter 4111 Stores Fonts

    “map” of dots, just like characters on a dot-matrix printer or on your computer screen. Resolution makes the difference: to make each character the Star LaserPrinter 4111 uses ten or twenty times as many dots as a dot-matrix printer or computer screen does.
  • Page 39 Cartridge fonts, like the internal ones, are permanently stored on ROM chips. The difference is that those ROMs are in removable cartridges. Your Star LaserPrinter 4111 has a slot for one font cartridge. A cartridge may hold anywhere from half a dozen to two dozen fonts, all differing from the internal fonts in size, style, stroke weight or symbol set.
  • Page 40 So with the Star LaserPrinter 4111 you can have many fonts available at any one time — the internal fonts, the fonts on any cassettes you’ve plugged in, and any fonts you have downloaded.

  • Page 41: Symbol Sets

    3.3 SYMBOL SETS Let summarize briefly, to put the subject of symbol sets in context. The attributes of a font determine what that font will look like when it is printed. We covered all but orientation at the start of this chapter, and orientation in the last chapter.

  • Page 42: Managing Fonts

    3.4 MANAGING FONTS You can see which fonts are currently selected on your Star LaserPrinter 4111 by printing a status sheet in offline mode, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. Another TEST mode menu item, described in the Srar La.~erPrinter4111 Operations Munuul, also lets you print out a list of all the...
  • Page 43 That capability is necessary if you want to see on-screen exactly what will print on your Star LaserPrinter 4111. D esktop publishers call this capability WYSIWYG — “what you see is what you get”.
  • Page 44 3.4.3 Optional fonts Many optional fonts available for your Star LaserPrinter 4111 complement its internal fonts. These can give you more variety in symbol sets, spacing, font height, style and stroke weight. To your Courier fonts, for example, you might add italics and bold, legal or math symbol sets, and sizes ranging from 7 to 14 points.
  • Page 45 Many commercial font-management programs are now on the market, including Insight Development’s LaserControl, Blaha Software’s HotLead, SoftCraft’s LaserFonts, and the PCL printer driver in Microsoft’s Windo~)s. These utility programs help you download fonts, then let you access the fonts automatically from your word processor or other programs. ,Most font files on disk that you buy to download into your printer have Escape sequences right in the file, which simplify the process.
  • Page 46 You then do the same for the italics and boldface files, for example typing for the italics font: DOWNLOAD CN 100IPN.R8P The prompts will be the same, but you have to remember to use different font ID numbers for the upright, italic and boldface fonts. 3.4.7 Downloading a font: example two Example two is for a computer running Aldus Corporation’s PageMaker desktop publishing program with Microsoft Windn-t’s.
  • Page 47 The process of downloading a font you’ve designed yourself is not so straightforward. As you can only do this, creating and downloading fonts is described further in chapter 4. 3.4.8 Hints: Managing memory Printing fancy stuff can be quite cumbersome for your printer. You trade off fanciness against speed: if you opt for fewer flourishes, you give your printer breathing room in memory.
  • Page 48 To keep a wide variety of extra fonts in memory, however, many Star LaserPrinter 4111 users (especially those sharing the printer on a network) prefer to add the optional board with the second megabyte of RAM.

  • Page 49: Printer Control Language

    Because the LaserJet III is a laser printer, though, its commands can give you more control over your Star LaserPrinter 4111 than is possible with the other built-in command sets. Recognizing that reality, we’ve put examples into this chapter.
  • Page 50 Two important details make PCL commands. First, all Escape sequences end with a capital letter. If you don’t make the last character uppercase, your printer won’t know when the Escape sequence ends and will treat following characters as part of the same command. Second, in PCL commands each number or character you put after the <ESC? code is an actual ASCII symbol.

  • Page 51: Controlling

    4.2 CONTROLLING THE PRINTER 4.2.1 Self test You can check how your LaserPrinter 4111 is printing and have a look at its parameter settings by sending this Self Test command: <ESC> Notice that the z is lowercase; this is the only PCL command that ends with a small letter.
  • Page 52 4.2.2 Set number of copies You can print up to 99 copies of each of the pages you send to the printer. You may send this command anywhere within the text on a page; it will stay in effect for that and all subsequent pages until you send another such com- mand: <ESC>...
  • Page 53 When you want to set all your laser printer’s parameters back to their initial default values (some people call this “initializing” the printer), send this command: <ESC> E .The printer will finish printing any pages left in its memory before resetting the parameters.

  • Page 54: Page Orientation

    You can now send your letter from your word processing program to the printer and feed in those pages. When you’re done, you may want to send the <ESC> E command one more time. 4.3 PAGE ORIENTATION You might reasonably think of page orientation as a page formatting issue. To print words widthwise on a page, however, each letter in effect has to lie on its back.
  • Page 55 PAPER SIZE ORIENTATION Portrait Executive Letter Portrait Portrait Portrait Legal Landscape Executive Landscape Letter Landscape Legal Landscape * Printing landscapes on legal paper is trickier. First set on portrait mode and send the command <ESC> &? 84P and then change the orientation to landscape.
  • Page 56 4.3.2 Side margins Margin settings define that part of the page on which the printer can print. You set side margins to particular columns. The width of a column differs for each font, depending on its pitch. Ten-pitch Courier, for example, puts column 30 three inches from the left edge of the page (column 0).
  • Page 57 (for example when you print labels). Though you likely won’t often want to do it, the Star LaserPrinter 4111 will let you completely ignore the bottom margin too. If you choose to print below the bottom margin, remember that you might lose words or graphics in the unprintable region at the edge of the page.
  • Page 58 4.3.5 Example: Page OK, let’s have ago at formatting a page. The picture of the page we want is just below. The actual width of the text on the page depends on which font we use. Let’s plan on using our 16.66-pitchLine Printer font at eight lines per inch.

  • Page 59: Moving The Print Position

    You can move horizontally or vertically to tab settings as well. Those aren’t all. You can also tell the Star LaserPrinter 4111 to move its print position, either vertically or horizontally, in increments of: 1/10, 1/12 or 3/50 inch (pitch settings),...
  • Page 60 4.4.3 Defining the space and column Before you use print positioning commands, you first may want to change the definitions of the line or space (sometimes called “vertical and horizontal motion indexes”, VMI and HMI). These definitions don’t actually move the print position.
  • Page 61 The important fact about the line depth is that when you change it you are changing the actual meaning of a “line”. When you increase the line depth you effectively decrease the number of lines per inch, and increase the page length.
  • Page 62 move to column 45 you send the command: <ESC> &a 45C But to move 45 columns to the right of the current print position, you send: <ESC> &a +45C To move the print position horizontally a certain number of decipoints, send the command: <ESC>...
  • Page 63 You can also move the cursor 8 columns at a time horizontally by use of the horizontal tab command. Simply send a tab character: <HT> to do this. Reverse tabbing is not possible. 4.4.8 Moving the print position vertically You can use similar units to move the print position vertically: lines, dots, or decipoints.
  • Page 64 To move the print position vertically a certain number of decipoints, send the command: <ESC> &a n V in which for n you enter the number of decipoints you wish to move the print position down (or precede the number with a + or– sign if you want to move up or down from the current position).
  • Page 65 And if you send this one: <ESC> &a +40h –20V the print position will move right 40 decipoints and up 20 decipoints. .4.4.11 Backspace The Backspace control code works exactly as you might expect: it moves the print position one column to the left. <BS>...
  • Page 66 The Half Line Feed command is the one you want for subscripts. This command moves the print position down the page one half the current line depth: <ESC> = To send a reverse Half Line Feed, moving the print position up to let you print a superscript, use this command: <ESC>...
  • Page 67 For n enter one of the numbers from this table: O(zero) <CR>, <LF> and <FF> work according to their basic 1 (one) After you send the command <ESC> &k 2 G for example, every time the printer gets a Line Feed command it will move the print position down and over to the start of the line.
  • Page 68 Note: Even when Autowrap is on, the printer will print beyond the right margin if you have sent one of the direct positioning commands described above, which move the print position past the margin. Also, note that Autowrap doesn’t move the whole word down to the next line —...

  • Page 69: Controlling Fonts

    Note: The last position pushed onto the list will always be the first one popped back later. 4.5 CONTROLLING FONTS 4.5.1 Font selection The Star LaserPrinter 4111lets you define and select fonts three ways: as primary and secondary fonts, or by font identification number, or by description.
  • Page 70 If you don’t explicitly indicate what attributes you want for the primary or secondary font, the printer will use the same default font for both. This default font’s attributes include the Roman-8 symbol set, 10-pitch spacing, 12-point height, upright style, medium weight, and Courier typeface. After your primary font is selected, you can choose it for printing by sending this Shift In control code: <S1>...
  • Page 71 14-pointcharacters if you don’t have a bold or 14-pointfont in the printer.) In listing the attributes you want, it will help you to prioritize them the same way your LaserPrinter 4111 does. Your printer ranks the various attributes a font can have this way (from most to least important):...
  • Page 72 Portrait orientation prints text across the width of a page. Landscape orientation prints text sideways up the length of a page. The Star LaserPrinter 4111 is more flexible about orientation than most other laser printers; it lets you simply rotate any portrait font to the landscape orientation or vice versa.
  • Page 73 To select the direction in which characters, raster graphics and fill patterns are printed, use the following command: <ESC>&a n P in which for n you put Oto select the portrait direction, Symbol sets: a review Each font can have many symbol sets, each being a subset of all the possible characters of the font.
  • Page 74 Note: The symbol sets marked with * can select when the approval Font Cartridge is installed. CODEn Legal 1S0 57: Chinese Pi font-Asymbols* 1S0 17:Spanish 1S0 2: IRV OCR-BExtension* 1S0 10:Swedish 1S0 16:Portuguese PS Math ISO 84:Portuguese MicrosoftPublishing VenturaMath 1S0 85: Spanish DeskTop Math-8symbols IBM-PCSet*...
  • Page 75 I IU To select a symbol set code for your secondary font, flip the parenthesis: <ESC> ) n and for n substitute your choice from the codes above. Selecting the current or default symbol set Your printer can use either the primary or the secondary font as its current font.
  • Page 76 To do these tasks, you can send the following command to select which symbol set you want for your secondary font: <ESC> ) n @ For n enter one of the values from this table: n VALUE O(zero) 1 (one) Example: Symbol set commands Let’s take a short look at how you use these commands.
  • Page 77 Pitch Pitch defines how many characters per inch you want for a monospaced- pitch font. Your Star LaserPrinter 4111’sinternal monospaced-pitch fonts have settings of 10, 12or 16.66characters per inch. Cartridge or downloaded fonts with monospaced pitches often have other settings for characters per inch.
  • Page 78 You can use a different command instead of these for general character pitch setting. This command, since it doesn’t have parentheses, covers both the primary and secondary fonts. It looks like this: <ESC> &k n S For n you enter a pitch code from the following table: CHARACTERS PER INCH cpi (pica) 16.66 cpi (condensed)
  • Page 79 To select style for the secondary font,just reverse the parenthesis and use the same n numbers: <ESC> )S n Remember that style is a relatively low-priority attribute. If a particular font satisfies all higher priority attributes but doesn’t come in the style you want, you’ll get that font without your style.
  • Page 80 Typeface The last attribute you can give to characters is their typeface. The design of characters is what font designers often think of as the main determinant for a font. But when you select a laser printer font, typeface sits at the bottom of the list.
  • Page 81 Example: Font attributes Let’s put the last half dozen font attributes together in an example. Say we want to select a nice font — a small Line Printer — for the footnotes in a report we’ve finished. Let’s make it our secondary font, since’ the body of our report is done in the primary font.
  • Page 82 4.5.6 Underline Underlining is printing feature, not a font attribute. You can underline in two ways: as a print feature, or with If you backspace and use the underline character, however, you character. often find the underline doesn’t come out the same length as your text. The underline command works better.
  • Page 83 To use Transparent print,just put this command immediately in front of your print data: <ESC> &p n X For n you specify the number of bytes of data you want to print . Display Functions, like the Transparent print command, prints Escape sequences and control codes without actually executing them.
  • Page 84 To control fonts you send this command: <ESC> *C r? For n enter one of the numbers from this table of functions: O(zero) 1 (one) A bit of explanation about that last function 6: When you give a font ID to anyfont you first need a temporary copy of that font in memory.
  • Page 85 Assuming you like what you see printed from those ASCII positions, you then want to make that current font permanent. Finally, you also want to dump all the temporary fonts from printer memory to make room for some graphics you’ll be printing. Let’s start with a reset and an underlined heading for your test print: 100 LPRINT CHR$ (27);“E”...
  • Page 86 4.5.10 Example: Assigning font numbers Now let’s do a program in BASIC. First we’ll assign font numbers to the Courier and Line Printer resident fonts and to a cartridge font, IBM PC Courier. Then we’ll print samples of each font. 100 LPRINT CHR$ (27) ;“...

  • Page 87: Using Your Own Fonts

    The next handiest way to do thejob is to ask around, maybe where you bought your LaserPrinter 4111, t o see if you can get one of the font-creating or font- editing utility programs now on the market. FonrGenIV+ is one. Keep an eye out, too, for new word processing tools that might save you the trouble of painstakingly figuring out details like kerning.
  • Page 88 The process of downloading a font you’ve designed yourself is somewhat detailed. To download your font, you follow the following steps: 1) assign a font ID number to your font, 2) download a font header, 3) identify the position of each character to be downloaded, 4) send a character descriptor and bit map for each character, 5) specify whether the file is to be permanent or temporary.
  • Page 89 Here’s a typical font header command: <ESC>)s26WO< SUB>OIOOO<RS>O< Aside from the actual command at the front, the rest looks like gobbledy- gook? But there’s 26 bytes there, each one an ASCII character, each one specifying a particular font attribute. (The enclosed items with brackets are single ASCII characters that happen to be control codes.) Each byte in the header is a number, which you send as whatever symbol happens to be stored at that numeric position in the ASCII table.
  • Page 90 Before you download each character you have to tell the printer where in its font table to put it. You indicate where by sending this command: <ESC> *C n For n you put the decimal number, between Oand 255, of the position in the font table where you want your character stored.
  • Page 91 BYTE 10-11 12-13 14-15 The bit map of the character isjust the pattern of dots in the character, starting at the top left of its cell. You work your way across the cell and down to the bottom right, giving each dot a value of Oif it’s not to be printed and 1 if it is.

  • Page 92: Raster Graphics

    The Star LaserPrinter 4111offers raster graphics (sometimes called “bit- mapped graphics”), which specify each dot in a graphics pattern. Be aware, though, that adding graphic elements always slows up printing with laser printers. The following steps should be performed (in the order shown) when printing raster graphics: 1) Define the resolution 2) Set the orientation of the graphic image...
  • Page 93 The command to start graphics must be transmitted next. The command is: <ESC> *r n A where n can take a value ofeither Oor 1.If you enter O,the margin for graphics will be set at the left-most printable edge of the page (not the same as the left margin for text).
  • Page 94 To signal the end of graphic data transmission, send the following command: <ESC> *r B There are no parameters. The LaserPrinter 4111 is now in text mode. A pro,grainminghint: move your print position in dot increments whenever you’re dealing with graphics. It’s easier than trying to calculate column- widths or decipoints.

  • Page 95: Pattern Graphics

    The Raster Width command specifies the width in pixels of the next raster graphic. <ESC> *r n S The value of n must be non-negative; if necessary it is truncated to the value of (logical page width) - (x coordinate of cursor). It will clip all raster rows longer than the specified width, even if n = O.It will pad any row shorter than the specified width with zeros.
  • Page 96 Defining the dimensions of the area you want to filljust means indicating the horizontal and vertical size of the pattern, or the rule’s length and thickness. You can indicate dimensions in either dots or decipoints (tenths of a point). At 300 dots or 720 decipoints to the inch, decipoint measurements are more accurate.
  • Page 97 in which n is the number of dots defining the thickness of the rule or the depth of the pattern. Alternatively, to show the vertical dimension in decipoints, you send this command: <ESC> *c n V in which n is the number of decipoints in the rule’s thickness or the pattern’s vertical length.
  • Page 98 11 -20 0/0 56-80 36-55 81 -99 you want a linear pattern, for Hyou enter here a pattern number between I and 6 inclusive. identifying one of the linear patterns below.
  • Page 99 You always send the following Print Pattern command after a Specify Pattern command. This Print Pattern command identifies whether the area you have defined is to be filled with a rule, dotted gray-scale pattern, or linear pattern: <ESC> *C n For n enter a value from the following table.
  • Page 100 The following two commands control “transparency”, whether or not white sections of an image block out black pixels that are already in place. <ESC> ‘ This selects the source transparency mode. whether white areas of the source image should be treated as transparent (and do not “white-out” black pixels they cover) or opaque (in which case they white-out black pixels).

  • Page 101: Macros

    Putting macros together to automatically repeat sequences of tasks is like using a real programming language. Your Star Micronics dealer may know of some pre-written macros already available for the Star LaserPrinter 4111. You’ll find macros especially handy for creating letterheads and business forms, and also for setting tabs, subscripts and superscripts.
  • Page 102 FUNCTION (zero) Start defining macro. Creates a new macro with the last specified macro number. This macro will be temporary; to make it perma- nent use <ESC> &f 10X after your definition. The printer will make a macro of the sequence of commands that follow this one, until it gets the command to stop defining the macro.
  • Page 103 Delete temporary macros. This option also deletes temporary automatic macros. Delete last specified macro. Make last specified macro temporary. Make last specified macro permanen[. The following program loads and runs a macro. The Imacromoves an inch and a half right and down three inches from the top left corner of the page, where it prints a 25 percent gray-scale bar.

  • Page 105: Vector Graphics

    The Star LaserPrinter 4111 provides the ability to print vector graphics using the GL/2 graphics language. Printing with GL/2 requires leaving the PCL mode and entering the GL/2 mode. Switching between modes involves only a few commands and software applications may easily switch between the two modes as needed —...
  • Page 106 You must give parameters in the format (type of units) required by each GL/2 command. The required format is stated in the parameter table of each command’s description, and is described as follows. Infege}-- An integer from –2, 147,483,648to +2, 147,483,647.The printer automatically rounds fractional parameters to the nearest integer.

  • Page 107: Controlling The Prin

    In GL/2, the coordinate system can be set by the user. The default coordinate system has its origin at the lower left of the picture frame (P 1), with its x-axis horizontally to the right, and the y-axis vertically upwards. Two types of units are available, plotter units (default) and user units.
  • Page 108 There are two escape sequences to define the area (or picture frame) that can be used for GL/2 graphics: which n is the horizontal size of the picture frame in decipoints, and <ESC> ‘kCH in which n is the vertical size of the picture frame in decipoints. These commands have the following side-effects: they set P 1to the lower left corner and P2 to the upper right corner of the picture frame.
  • Page 109 There are two escape sequences to define the plot size of the drawing: <ESC> *C t7 in which the horizontal size of the GL/2 plot in inches. t7 is <ESC> *C H in which n is the vertical size of the GL/2 plot in inches. These commands fit the GL/2 plot into the picture frame, establishing scaling factors using the formula: (plot size)/(picture frame size divided by 720)

  • Page 110: Configuration And Status

    The configuration and status group commands help you with the following: Establishing default conditions and values for GL/2 features. Scaling images in the dimensional units you want to use. Enlarging or reducing images for different media sized. Establishing a window (soft-clip limits). Drawing equal-sized and mirror-imaged drawings.
  • Page 111 The results of the following commands depend on the positions of PI and P2: DR. FT, IW, LB, LT. PW, RO, SC, SR, WU. IR [P]r.~,Pln [, P2r.x,P2ry :]] This command establishes new or default locations for the scaling points P 1 and P2 relative to the picture frame size.
  • Page 112 An alternate method of ejecting a page is the Form Feed command. A Form Feed causes an unconditional page eject and advances the current active cursor position to the top of form on the next page. The horizontal cursor position remains the same as before the page eject. RO [cwgle :] This command rotates and translates the plotter coordinate system.
  • Page 113 The meanings of and relationships between the parameters are: If tvpe parameter is O (as specified or by default), SC defines antisotropic sealin,g;the first form of the command is assumed and the last two param- eters, and bottotn.are ignored even if present; coordinates of P 1, and xmax, )’ma.r,the coordinates of P2.

  • Page 114: Vector Group

    The information in this section enables you to achieve the following results in your programs: Use absolute and relative coordinates when plotting. Draw 1 ines, arcs, and circles. . Enc’odecoordinates to greatly increase your printer’s throughput. AA xc, JC, angle [, chord angle ;] where xc indicates the x-coordinate of center of arc, yc is the y-coordinate of center of arc.
  • Page 115 xi. ]i, xe, ye [, where indicates the x-coordinate of intermediate point I, yi is the y-co- ordinate of intermediate point I, xe is the x-coordinate of end point E, and ye is the y-coordinate of end point E. The chord ungle is the angle subtended by chord, from 0.5 to 180 With the current position F, this command draws an arc containing points F, I and E.
  • Page 116 PE,flug [~’alueor With this command, there should be no separators between parameters, and the command terminator <;> must be used. The meanings of and relation between parameters are as given in the following table: Flag (hex ASCII) Meaning 3A or BA Select pen 3C or BC <...
  • Page 117 Pu [.rl, )’1, X2, }’2, ..1?2, This command is the same as PA except that the “pen up” flag is set and no lines are drawn. If there is no argument, this is the only effect of the command.

  • Page 118: Polygon Group

    (which is not necessarily connected). The Star LaserPrinter 4111 has a buffer capable of storing 1500 points, with pen up and down commands stored as points. The following commands clear the polygon buffer and then use it to draw: EA.ER,...
  • Page 119 ER d,r,d} [;] This command is similar to the EA command, except that the coordinates of the opposile corner relative to current cursor position are specified. radius, sturt an,q[e,sweep angle 1,chord angle ;J This command draws the edge of a wedge of a circle with its center at current cursor position.
  • Page 120 PM mode [;] Mode Oclears the polygon buffer and enters the polygon mode, in which the following commands can be used: AA, AR, AT, CI, DF. IN, PA, PD, PE, PM 1. PM2, PR, PU, PR. Reset command <ESC> E can also be given. The polygon stored using these commands can be edged (using EP) or filled (using FP) once the polygon mode has been left (PM2).

  • Page 121: Line And Fill Attribute Group

    AC .VC, }C [:] The default is (),0and “anchors” the fill to the origin of the current coordinate system. t>p{ [. Il(tl%ll}l] [, The relation between lhese three parameters and the meanings are given in the table below. fill type solid (default) ‘2 solid...
  • Page 122 For type 11,the fill index is as specified in command RF; if an RF command has not been given, solid fill is used. For type 21, the pattern type is a number between 1 and 6, corresponding to the patterns defined in the standard mode. If any parameter or combination is outside the values in the table, the command is ignored.
  • Page 123 LT type [, pattern length [, mode ;]] This comlmandspecifies the line pattern to be used when drawing lines When no parameters are specified, this command selects a solid line and saves the previous line type, pattern length and any unused portion of the pattern.
  • Page 124 }~idtll[.pen ;] This command specifies a new width for the logical pen. The default pen width is 0.35 mlmor 1Ycof the distance PI to P2. A width of Osets the thinnest line possible (one dot). Metric.widths are scaled by the ratio [size of picture franle]/[plot size]. If the pen number is not specified, the new width is applied to both.
  • Page 125 Symbols are taken from the currently selected character set and are sized, slanted and rotated in the same way as characters. SP pe}lnumber [;] This command selects the printer’s logical pen for subsequent plotting. This command must be set in order to output. Pen Ois white;...
  • Page 126 With parameters. this command selects the screening (fill) to be used for all “vectors” (all lines except labels and ‘stroked’ characters). TR [H:] The transparency mode defines how the white areas of the source graphics image affect the destination graphics image. The parameter n specifies whether transparency mode is on ( 1) or off (0).
  • Page 127 When you have created a vector graphic and want to add text, you can either enter normal mode to add text to your image or you can print text from within the GL/2 mode. If this is your first experience with GL/2, you should know that the term “label”...
  • Page 128 CF,fill mode [, edge pt’t?:] This command specifies the way scalable fonts are filled and edged; bitmap and Stick fontscannot be edged and can be filled only with raster fill, shading, or cross-hatch patterns. Scalable characters maybe filled with any of the fill patterns specified by the and user-defined raster fill patterns).
  • Page 129 Absolute direction command DI x, ) [;] This command specifies the slope or direction at which characters are drawn, independent of P 1 and P2 setting. At least one parameter must be non-zero, otherwise the command is ignored. Relative direction command run, ri~e [;] This command established the run and rise of the text path relative to the distance between points P1 and P2.
  • Page 130 Within a label, each character begins to the right of the previous character. This is a horizontal text path (unless altered by DI or DR). Within a label. each character begins below the previous character. This is a vertical text path (unless altered by DI or DR). Within a label, each character begins to the left of the previous character.
  • Page 131 L.ubelinstruction command te.rt... text label terminator This command prints (draws) printable characters in the string (up to 1024 characters), using the primary font selected and executes the functions of control characters in the string.Control characters S1and SO switch between the primary and secondary fonts. Label origin command LO position [:] This command positions labels relative to the current pen location.
  • Page 132 Standardfont definition command SD kind. ~’alue[, kind, iwlue, ... ;] This command defines (but does not select) the standard font by specifying its attributes. The meaning of kind parameter is as follows: Kind The tvdue parameter defines the characteristics of the characteristic specified by the kina parameter.
  • Page 133 When command SB 1 is in effect, command S1cannot use negative param- etersand, ingeneral.can selectonlyapproximatevaluesofpositiveparameters. In addition, only one parameters has effect, the width for monospaced fonts and the height for proportional fonts. Character slant command SL tan(skuzt un~le) [;] This command specifies the slant at which labels are drawn.

  • Page 134: Escape Sequences In Gl/2 Mode

    5.8 ESCAPE SEQUENCES IN GIJ2 MODE When the following commands are given, they have the same results, whether the printer is in the standard mode or the GL/2 mode. <ESC> E the initialization IN command is executed. . the picture frame is set to its default size. the frame anchor is set to its default position, .
  • Page 135 cESC> &kn A . the picture frame is set to its default size. . the frame anchor is set to its default position. . the plot size is set to its default size. . P 1 and P2 are set to their default positions. .

  • Page 137: Technical Supplement

    This final chapter in your Star LaserPrinter 4111 Applications Manual holds two main sections. The first one will help you with your programming job, while the last provides the symbol set tables. We’ve summarized all commands in ASCII order here. You’ll find them organized by function in chapter 4 and 5.
  • Page 138 Function Command <ESC> &f n X Macro control <ESC> &f n Y Specify macro ID <ESC> &k n G Set line termination <ESC> &k n H Horizontal Motion Index <ESC> &k n S Select font pitch Vertical Motion Index <ESC> ,&/t? C <ESC>...
  • Page 139 Function Command <ESC> *b n Y Advanced vertical raster position <ESC> Define horizontal rectangle size in dots *C n <ESC> Define vertical rectangle size in dots *C n <ESC> Specify font ID *C n <ESC> Specify character code *C n Font control <ESC>...
  • Page 140 6.1.2 GL/2 commands Function Command Exit GL/2 mode <ESC> <ESC> Enter GL/2 mode <ESC> Set horizontal plot size *C n <ESC> Set vertical plot size *C n <ESC> Set picture frame anchor point *C n <ESC> Set picture frame horizontal size in decipoints *C n <ESC>...
  • Page 141 Function Command Line type Plot absolute Pen down Polyline encoded Polygon mode Plot relative Pen up Pen width Fill rectangle absolute Raster fill definition Rotate coordinate system Fill rectangle relative Relative arc three points Select alternate font Select font type Scale Standard font definition Absolute character size...

  • Page 142: Symbol Sets

    6.2 SYMBOL SETS This section gives tables of the symbol sets for the Star LaserPrinter 4111. The decimal character code of each character is shown in an insetto the lower right of the character. The hexadecimal code can be found by reading the entries at the top and left edges of the table.
  • Page 143 ID Number Symbol Name l--i I 01 <OC2> <OC3J <OC4> <VT> <FF> — — 60: Norwegian I 321 I 331 I 491 I 651 ‘1 &6 +“ ‘ 1 291 ‘--lAm131i. I 781 I 461 I 621 I . (...
  • Page 144 Number Symbol Name Roman Extension r--! I 1211 I 731 I 891 I 105 I 411 “ 1 571 I 251...
  • Page 145 ID Number Symbol Name ISO 25: French...
  • Page 146 ID Number Symbol Name German...
  • Page 148 ID Number Symbol Name ASCII...
  • Page 149 ID Number Symbol Name ECMA-94 Latin 1 I 4Y[...
  • Page 150 Latin 1 (cont.)
  • Page 151 ID Number Symbol Name I 0] 1 10 I <VT) cESCJ I..- 1 — 1S0 11: Swedish I 321 1 481 I 331 I 491 I 651 – I 81 I 58 “ ‘E ‘: 1 451 I 291 I 61[ *l&W...
  • Page 152 ID Number <NUL> 1< Symbol Name US-ASCII o— (a— — P— ‘—...
  • Page 153 ID Number Symbol Name 1S0 61: Norwegian...
  • Page 154 ID Number Symbol Name 1S0 UK 2345...
  • Page 155 ID Number Symbol Name...
  • Page 156 ID Number Symbol Name 21: German...
  • Page 157 ID Number Symbol Name HP Spanish...
  • Page 158 ID Number Symbol Name 1S0 57: Chinese...
  • Page 159 ID Number Symbol Name — I 101 Spanish I 341 I 661 I 421 I 581 Iiiq...
  • Page 160 ID Number Symbol Name 4567 10111213...
  • Page 161 ID Number Symbol Name <VT> <ESCJ l-i-l p Swedish I 42 I 58 I 74 “ ‘E a 1106 [122...
  • Page 162 ID Number Symbol Name Portuguese...
  • Page 163 ID Number Symbol Name Portuguese...
  • Page 164 ID Number Symbol Name Spanish...
  • Page 165 ID Number Symbol Name <CR> <s0> b-l% Roman-8...
  • Page 166 ID Number Symbol Name Roman-8 (cont.)
  • Page 167 Symbol Name Number IBM-PC(US) — ,“”...
  • Page 168 ID Number Symbol Name IBM-PC(US) (cont.)
  • Page 169 ID Number Symbol Name IBM-PC (Denmark/Norway)
  • Page 170 ID Number Symbol Name IBM-PC (Denmark/Norway) (cont.) =El= — ‘r 213022, @’ 237...
  • Page 171 ID Number Symbol Name PC-850...
  • Page 172 ID Number Symbol Name PC-850 (cont.)

  • Page 173: Index

    Index commands, 106-107 ascender,28 ASCII,6-11 ASCII symbol set, 33 attributes. See font attributes auto parameters, auto wrap, Autowrapcommand,59 backspace command, 57 baseline, 29 baud rate, 17 binary arithmetic, 5-6 bit-mapped fonts, 2, 30 bold print, 27 carriage return, 57 cartridge fonts, 31-32, 36 character commands, 119-125 character description commands, 82-83 character parameter, 14...
  • Page 174 factory settings, 15 feed selection, 44 fill command, 113 font attributes, 25,27-29, 34,63 default, 34 See also font orientation; pitch; point size: spacing; stroke weight; style; symbol set; typeface font control commands, 61-78 font design, 79-83 font header, 80-81 font height, 28, 33, 63, 70 IDnumbers.
  • Page 175 N ~• networks, 40 number of copies command, 44 LINE button, 13 optional fonts, 2, 36 orientation. See font orientation outline fonts, 32 page design. 35 page formatting commands, 20-2S, 46-50 page Iength commands, 46-47 page orientation. See font orientation paper, 21-22 continuous-form.
  • Page 176 style commands, 26, 29.33, 63, 70 subscripts, 33 superscripts. 33 symbol sets, 25, 33-34.65-68, 134-164 “— tab commands, 53-55 templates, 35 TEST/> button, 13 Text Length command, 49 toner cartridge, 21 top margin command, 48 transparencies. 22.118 Transparent print command, 74-75 typeface.
  • Page 178 PRINTED IN JAPAN...

This manual is also suitable for:

Laserprinter 4iii

Table of Contents