Epson LX-80, Operating Manual

Page: 75 / 193

After you have c r e at e d your own char a cters with the s e pr ograms,
certain characte r s w hi c h y ou s eldom use will be printed as th e u ser-
defined characters. F o r ex a mpl e, y o u could t y pe
=
to print
t.
Your user-define d c h a r ac ter s c a n b e utilitarian or im a gin a ti ve, any-
thing from a sc i e ntif ic sy mbol to s cr i pt l e tters f o r y our initi als. Just
follow the simp l e s t e p s b e lo w.
The only restric ti o n o n y our c re ativit y i s th a t the ch a r a ct ers you
define must follow th e s a m e rul es that govern th e r e st o f th e charac-
ters printed by t h e L X - 8 0. Th ey mu s t fit int o an 11
x 9
m a tri x, no dot
can overlap ano th er, a nd e ith e r t h e top o r th e bottom r ow must be
empty. Look at th e e nlarg e m e nt s of the characters in Chapt er 3 and
Appendix A to see h o w th e s t a nd a rd L X -80 characters are d esigned.
Designing Pr ocess
Suppose you nee d t he Gr ee k letter s igma
(L)
in yo u r work.
Although the LX - 8 0 h as a numb e r o f s pecial s y mbol s, th e sigma is
not one of them. Yo u ca n , h oweve r , c r ea t e a nd p r int s u c h a symbol
with ease. First, u se a g rid lik e th e o n e in Figur e 8 -1 to pl a n where to
place the dots.
81 --- + -- + -- + --- + ---- 1
71 --- + -- + -- + --- + ---- 1
6f -- + -- + -- + -- + --- J
5
1 -- + -- + - + -- + -- 1
41 --- + -- + -- + --- + ---- 1
31 --- + -- + -- + --- + ---- 1
2
r - + - + - + - + - ~
1
1 -- + -- + - + -- + -- 1
Because the las t t wo column s are r e s e rved for the spac e b etween
characters, they h ave n o t been included in the grid. And sin ce most
characters do no t us e th e b o tt o m two rows , a heavy lin e h as been
used to indicate th e u s ual lo we r limit for an LX-80 charact er .