Appendix B. A Quick Look At Line Matrix Printing; Character Formation - IBM 6500 User Manual

Appendix B. A Quick Look at Line Matrix Printing

Character Formation

The IBM 6500–v is an impact printer: it creates characters by printing ink dots on
paper. Dots overlap to produce a solid-appearing character of uniform density. The
dots are made by an assembly of steel hammers mounted on a rapidly oscillating
shuttle. The hammers strike the paper through a moving ink ribbon. The dot
patterns of characters are mapped in printer memory on invisible matrices, as
shown in Figure 19.
Ink dots formed by
hammer tips
Figure 19. Typical Character Formation
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2005
Dot Column
Dot Row
Character Column
Matrix visible only to
the printer
Character Row
261