Brother HL-Series Technical Reference Manual page 228

Revision C 16/01/96
5.6. Using customized characters
Define characters
Esc&NUL n
(27)(38)(00)n1n2(n3....)
Ÿ
This command enables you to define and download characters for printing.
Ÿ
Monospaced characters are designed on a grid eleven dots wide by nine dots high. Characters
either occupy the top 8 rows of the grid (ascending characters) or rows 2 to 9 of the grid
(descending characters).
Ÿ
Proportionally spaced characters are subject to the same height constraints (that is, eight dots
high and either ascending or descending). The width of proportionally spaced characters is
specified in n
Ÿ
n is the character code of the first character in the sequence to be defined.
1
Ÿ
n is the character code of the last character in the sequence to be defined.
2
Ÿ
It is assumed that you are defining a sequence of characters whose code numbers increment by
one for each character as default. If this is not the cause, you must split the characters you
are defining into sets of characters with contiguous code numbers and use a separate
command for each set.
Ÿ
Each character is defined as a series of bytes - each byte defining a column of dots. The
columns are read from left to right in the order in which they occur in the definition. The most
significant bit of each byte represents the top dot of the column, and the least significant bit
represents the bottom dot. Simply set a bit to 1 to print a dot in that position on the grid, or to
0 to print white space.
Ÿ
The MSB (bit 8) of n
Set bit 8 to 0 when defining an ascender, and to 1 for a descender. Ascending characters
occupy the top 8 rows of the grid while descending characters occupy rows 2 to 9 of the grid.
Ÿ
Bits 5 to 7 of n
proportional spacing mode. The number of columns to skip is the number held in bits 5 to 7
minus 1. Up to six columns can be skipped. Hence, if you set this number to 4 it is equivalent
to setting the first three character definition data bytes to 0.
n ( n <character definition data>)
1 2 3
Blank columns Character width
1
2
3
Rows 1 - 8
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Replication area
11
12
3.
specifies whether the defined character is an ascender or a descender.
3
specify the number of columns left blank to the left of the defined character in
3
Chapter 5 " EPSON FX-850 " - 29
<1Bh><26h><00h>n1n2(n3...)
Rows 2 - 9