Epic 3000
Programmer’s Guide
Programming Codes
100-14362
Rev A
Page 77
Horizontal Graphics
The EPIC 3000 Printer supports graphics sent as horizontal scan lines. Individual scan
lines of graphic data are sent to the printer one line at a time. Although the EPIC 3000
Printer only supports two colors (black and white), the horizontal graphic command
interface gives color or gray scale support for printer graphics. Color support is provided
to establish a full color standard for future printers. Color data is sent in one of three
color planes. Typically, a red plane or scan line is sent, then green and blue. Gray scale
support is provided by using the red, green and blue as gray levels. The sequence of
lines defines one row of dots that is printed on the paper.
The horizontal graphic commands do not include resolution information. Therefore, only
once before sending graphics data, set the graphics resolution by sending the [ESC] *
command with a zero length (no data). The graphic resolution sets the internal graphic
mode of the printer. The printer stays in graphic mode until it is changed by another
command. Note that the bar code generation and other graphic commands change
graphics mode. The format of the horizontal graphic command follows.
[ESC] h
Process horizontal graphics data
ASCII
[ESC] h <color> <length> <format> <data>
Hexadecimal
1BH 68H
Decimal
<27> <104>
IPCL
None
EPOS
None
Description
The [ESC] h <color> <length> <format> <data> command processes
horizontal graphic data, where <color> is a byte that specifies the color of the data being
sent.
<color> =
0 Use Previously Selected Color
1 Red
Gray
2 Green
or
Light Gray
4 Blue
Dark Gray
Note 1:
If the printer is configured for Gray scale paper, this command is
used for gray scale graphics.
Note 1:
Red, green, and blue pixels set to one at the same location result
in a white dot, while red, green, and blue pixels set to zero form a black
dot. For black print, one represents a black dot and zero represents a
white dot.
Note 2:
More than one color may be set at a time, for example, setting the
color to six would set green and blue simultaneously
<length> =
byte specifying the length of the data including the format byte, ranging
from 0 to 254 (255 is reserved for future use.)
<format> =
byte specifying the format of the graphics data.
0 for raw data
1 for bit wise RLE compression
8 for byte wise RLE compression
