Pica Printing - Epson LX-86TM User Manual

If you don't want to do the exercises in
Many users are quite happy with their printers without ever learning
any more about them than how to turn them on and off and how to
load paper. Therefore, you shouldn't be intimidated by the informa-
tion in this manual. In most cases the software that you use for word
processing, business, or graphics does the calculating and communi-
cating with the printer for you.
In fact, because of Epson's long-standing popularity, many prog-
rams are designed to use Epson printers quite easily. Often all you
need to do is specify in an installation program that you are using an
Epson printer. Then the program sends the correct codes for the
various printing functions. The installation process, if there is one, is
explained in the manual for your software program.
We have designed these chapters so that you can concentrate on
using the features of the LX-86 instead of on programming, but
a few instructions are necessary. Because the examples in this
manual are in Microsoft BASIC (MBASIC), one of the most widely
used types of BASIC in personal computers, most users can enter
and run the programs exactly as they appear in these pages.
If your computer system uses any other kind of BASIC, you may
have to make a few changes. Probably the only item you will need to
change is the instruction LPRINT, which is the MBASIC command
to send something to the printer. Some forms of BASIC use PR#l at
the beginning of a program to route information to the printer and
PR#O
at the end to restore the flow of information to the screen. If
you have such a system, just put
program and then use PRINT instead of LPRINT in the programs. If
you have any other system, consult its manual to see if any modifica-
tions to our programs are necessary.
In Chapter 3 you saw the enlargements of the three LX-86 pitches.
Now you'll learn how to produce them.

Pica Printing

The first exercise is a simple three-line program to print a sample
line of characters in pica, the standard pitch. Just type in this program
exactly as you see it:
FOR X=65 TO 105
40
50 LPRINT CHR$(X);
60 NEXT X: LPRINT
34
BASIC,
PR#l
at the beginning of your
you don't have to.