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Section
3:
USING
YOUR
PRINTER
Introduction
Now
that
you've
learned
how
to insert the
ribbon
and
paper
into
your
printer,
connect
the
printer
to
your computer, and
how
to
test
your
printer for
problems, you're ready
for the
next
step:
putting
the
VIC
printer to
work
for
you.
Your
printer
does
a lot
more
than
give a clean, fast
printing
of
your work.
It
has
its
own
internal
microprocessor
(computing
system)
which makes
it
both
versatile
and
practical. In
addition,
it
doesn't
need
to use
up
precious
memory
space
in
your computer
because
it
stores
everything
you
want
to print
in
its
own
memory.
In
this
section
we
will
show you
how
to use
your
printer to print
listings,
program
results,
and
graphic
displays.
You
will
also see
how
to
make
double
width
characters
and
even
how
to create a
few custom
designed
graphics.
But
before
you
go any
farther
in this
manual,
make
sure that
you
are
able to
do
the
following:
1
.
Operate
your
Commodore
computer.
2.
Write
elementary programs
in
BASIC.
3.
Read
and
write
files
to
and from
a peripheral device,
like a
tape
cassette
recorder or disk
drive.
4.
Open
and
close
files.
If
you
are
not
familiar
with any of
the
above
procedures,
check your
computer's
User's
Manual
for
the
information
you
need.
1
.
Special
Printer-
Associated
Commands
When
you
want
to print
something on your
printer, essentially
what
you
are
doing
is
transferring the
video
screen function to the
printer.
A
few
special
BASIC commands
allow
you
to
make
this transfer.
Most
of
the
other
rules
and syntax of
BASIC
remain
the
same. Don't
forget to
type
the
RETURN
key
after
each
line
of
information.
The
OPEN Command
This
command
creates
a
correspondence
between
a
file
number
and
a
physical device.
The
logical
file
number
(Ifn)
may
be
any
number
from
1
to
255.
It
doesn't
matter
which
number you
choose,
as
long
as
you
keep
the
same
number
throughout
your
set
of
commands.
15.
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