Epson LX-80, Operating Manual

Page: 44 / 193

Printer Codes
To take a d va ntage of the many print features of the LX-8 0, you can
use a softwar e program that sends the correct codes or you can use
another met h o d to send instructions to the printer . It is not possible
to be as precis e and specific a s we would like in this chapt er because
the LX - 80 wo rk s in combination with so many different a ppl ications
programs an d computer s ystems.
However, this ch a pter w i ll lay down the general principl es of how
software com mun i cates with the printer , plus several wa ys in which
the codes of the LX-80 a re u se d by word processing and business
programs. W ith thi s inform a tion and possibly some help from your
dealer or the oper a tin g m a nu a l for the applications pro gram, full
advantage ca n be taken of all the features of the LX-80 that you
wish to use. Incidentally , there is no standard terminolog y for soft-
ware codes; t hu s, the terms in the software manual may di ffer from
the ones u se d here.
There are a n umb e r of w a y s of s ending printer codes with commer-
cial software:
• Using Se l ec T y pe , as d e scribed in Chapter 2 .
• Instructing th e program during an installation or setup p rocedure
enabling yo u to use s pecial code s that are typed in a l ong with
your text o r dat a. These will be referred to as " soft wa r e com-
mand" code s .
• Inserting L X-80 print e r codes in the text enclosed b y special
instruction characters which tell the printer that the " em bedded"
codes are not text or data, but special codes for the p rinter .
There are th r e e common formats for inputting printer cod es either
into the prog r a m or ins e rting them into the text . The ap p l ications
software or i t s m a nual s hould tell you which one to u s e .
• Decimal n umber s - 27 , for example is the decimal n umber for
the <ESC > code , and 13 is the decimal number for a carriage
return.
• Hexadeci m a l numbers (sometimes abbreviated to he x), for ex-
ample in which the <ESC> code is IB and a carriage r e t urn is
OD. You do not have to understand hexadecimal numb ers to use
them. I f y our software calls for hex numbers , just consult Appen-
dix C or t he Quick Reference Card for the appropriat e nu mber .