Intermec PK80 - Manual (Page 79)

Graphics Printing Appendix
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67 PK80 Series 80-Column Printer User’s Manual
User-Defined Characters
To maintain 6820 Printer graphic compatibility, the PK80 Printer must
also support user-defined characters. User-defined characters allow for the
design of:
S New alphabets and typefaces
S Mathematical and scientific symbols
S Graphic patterns to serve as building blocks for larger designs
User-defined characters are stored in temporary memory (RAM). RAM-
based definition, or redefinition, of standard characters is only allowed
when the default SBCS code page is selected. There is no method to rede-
fine characters in the other code pages since unique code pages can be
created and loaded into the printer font memory (FLASH) for use. The
following codes deal with user defined characters and their selection into
memory
ESC : — Copy ROM to RAM
This command sequence copies the characters from ROM into RAM so
that a complete user-defined character set is created by editing selected
characters. This is helpful when user-defined character sets are selected so
that all characters are defined. This eliminates the need to unselect the
user-defined character set when printing characters that were not defined.
This command is only available when the default SBCS character set is
selected.
Note: The three sets of zeros following the ESC : are part of the com-
mand.
Hexadecimal Format
1b 3A 00 00 00
ESC & — Define User-Defined Characters
This command sequence allows characters to redefine in the currently se-
lected mode. Use this command in draft mode only. Any character from
0–255 may be redefined. Value k1 is the character code of the first charac-
ter to redefine. Value k2 is the character code of the last character to de-
fine. Value k1 may equal k2 if only one character code is defined.
For each character defined, supply 12 bytes of data. The first byte (s1) de-
scribes the character format. The bottom four bits are the end position in
the character grid. The next three bits represent the start position in the
grid. Bit 7 represents whether the character uses the top eight pins or the
bottom eight pins of the print head. When bit 7 = 0 the character uses the
top eight pins. When bit 7 =1, the bottom four bits are used.
The start and end positions are ignored during character imaging but must
be accurate to redefine the character code.