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GL-5
Glossary
Pitch
Characters per horizontal inch (cpi).
Platen
A hard rubber cylinder that moves paper forward during printing.
Printing Test
A test that determines whether the printer is working correctly. Test pages are printed to
show print quality and verify whether all characters print. The printing test only tests the
printer. It does not test how the computer works with the printer.
Proportional Spacing
Character spacing in which wide characters occupy more space than do narrow characters.
For example, characters such as “W” or “M” occupy more horizontal space than do
characters such as “i” or “l.” Many soft fonts are proportionally spaced. Sometimes
designated PS, proportional spacing is the opposite of monospacing.
Protocol
A set of instructions that control how data is transmitted between devices such as a
computer and a printer. This printer has three resident protocols: DEC PPL2 (native
command set), IBM proprinter X24E, and Epson ESC/P2.
Rear Feed
In rear feed, paper is fed from the rear of the printer. The forms tractor unit must be
installed at the rear of the printer. The forms tractor unit pushes paper into the printer.
Resident Fonts
Fonts present (resident) in the printer’s permanent memory. For this printer, the resident
fonts are Courier 10, Prestige Elite 12, Pica 10, OCR-B 10, Boldface PS, Compressed font,
Correspondence, Draft, and High-speed Draft. Unlike soft fonts, resident fonts can always
be accessed.
Serial Interface
A standard computer interface. Information is transferred between devices over a single
wire (although other wires are used for control). A long cable is often necessary in
networking environments, where the printer may be shared. With the DEC-423 serial
interface, the length of the interface cable is 600 meters (1970 feet) or less.
Set-Up Mode
One of the printer’s two operating modes. In the Set-Up mode, the control panel can be
used to select the printer default settings, such as print features, hardware options, and top-
of-form. The Set-Up mode also provides some diagnostic functions. See also Normal
mode.
Shadow Printing
Shadow printing prints characters twice for emphasis. Characters printed the second time
are shifted slightly to the right.