Star Micronics 8 Series Applications Manual page 17

Printer drivers
Most softwarepackagesalreadyincludethe printercommandsthey need.
The programsthat sendcommandsto the printerso youdon'thaveto enter
them yourselfare calledprinter drivers.
Manyprogramsask you to installor configureyourprinter,whichusually
meanskeyinginto a menuthe particularsetupinformationdescribingyour
Star LaserPrinter8. You enter suchthingsas how you want to underline,
alterline spacing,or moveto a new printposition.
Someprograms,such as WordPetiect and the systemsfrom LotusDevel-
opmentCorporation,let you put printerEscape sequencesbefore or right
insidethedocumentyouwanttoprint.Toturnonboldface,forexarnple,you
mightholddownspecialkeyson yourkeyboard,oftenlabellcdCONTROL
or ALT,as youpressanotherkey. Or youmightuse a specialFunctionkey,
such as F6.
In fact,to takereal advantageof yourStarLascrPnnter8'sspecialabilities,
youmightoptfor a wordprocessorthatlets youspecifyfontchangeseasily.
WordPerfect a ndMicrosoftWord arestrongatthis,butare by no meansthe
only good font manipulators.
If you havetroubleusing a particularprogramwith yourStar LaserPrinter
8, you'll probably get answers most quickly by asking your software
supplierhow the programinteractswith yourprinter.
Inthismanualwereferto programs,fontsandotherproductssoldby several
companies. P leaserealizethatmentioningtheseproductsdoesnotmeanStar
Micronicsendorsesthem in any way.
Sending your own printer commands
Withouta printer driver, sendingcontrolcodes and Escape sequencesto
yourprinterproperlyrequiressomeknowledgeof a programminglanguage
like BASICor Pascal,or at leastof how to put such codesinto a program.
Withprogramminglanguages,the computerdoesn'tact on the commands
you put into a programuntil you tell it to run that program.
When you give a commandto the printer from a computerprogram,you
normallyentereach partof the commandas a separatecharacter.This way
you don't affectanythingelse happeningon the computer.You often send
each codeor characterin the commandby givingits positionin the ASCII
table, as a decimalor hex number.
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