Epson LX-80, Operating Manual

Page: 37 / 193

Bidirectional Printing
Nearly all disc u s sions in this manual describe the action of t h e LX-
80 print head as moving from left to right . However , du r i ng its
normal operat ion while printing in the draft mode , the LX- 80 prints
bidirectionally. Thi s me a ns that the print head first goes from l eft to
right, and inste ad of coming back to the beginning of the ne x t l ine , it
saves time by printing the next line of character s in rev e r se from
right to left. Thi s i s done automatically. You do not kn ow it i s
happening un le s s you watch it .
C hanging Pitches
In addition to pica , in which there are 10 character s per in ch , the
LX - 80 can als o print in other widths , or pitches. It do es so by
reducing the di stance between pin firings . In the elite mode it prints
12 characters pe r inch a nd in the condensed mode it print s s l ightly
more than 17 c h a racter s per inch . The pattern of the d o t s is not
changed, but t h e horizontal s pace between them i s reduc e d .
Figure 3 - 2 sho w s enlargements of four sample letters in e a ch of the
t h ree pitches. The s e letters ar e chosen to show how the LX- 80 prints
letters that are uppercase (c a pital letters) and lowerc a s e ("small
letters"), wide a nd narrow , and with and without descend e r s (i.e. ,
the bottom pa rt of a letter such as y or g which descend s b e l ow the
base-line of m ost characters) .