just over 17 characters per inch. The smaller characters allow for
spreadsheets, or other work that requires compact printing, to be
squeezed on an 8½-inch page.
In Figure 5-3, you can see the difference in the two pitches. Pica is
the default, the pitch in effect when the printer is turned on.
1 inch
P i c a
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z a b
C o m p r e s s e d
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuv
Figure 5-3. Comparison between print pitches
Pitch Mode Combinations
Expanded is a print mode that can be used with either Pica or
Com-
pressed print pitches. You can add this mode to your program to print-
out for one line only or for longer passages. Expanded can also be used
with most of the other modes.
Expanded mode
Expanded mode doubles the width of the current pitch mode. It
does this by printing twice as many dots, twice as wide, as you can see
in Figure
5-4.
Pica A
Expanded A
Figure 5-4. Pica and Expanded letters
35
