Filter
Top Products
App
endix B
IBM ProPrinte
r
X24
and IBM ProPrinter II Commands
B.2.8
Downloading Customized Characters (DLL)
If you like, you can create "your own" set of characters, and use it in place of the printer's
character set. You can redesign all 256 characters, or just some of them, and load them
into the printer's memory (DLL = Down Line Loading) using the command
ESC = ..
.
Each time you can only load characters in ascending code order. If you want to load
characters with non-consecutive codes, you must execute the command repeatedly (for
each
g
rou
p
of characters with consecutive codes
)
.
The area occupied by the characters is 9 dots high and 12 wide (the 12th dot is always a
space). The matrix for constructing the characters has 11 columns with 8 dots per column.
Eleven bytes (one per column) define the shape of the character. One dot is printed for
each bit set to "1" (as in BIM graphics).
Using the DLL command, you can also create graphic symbols and shaded characters.
The graphic symbols are automatically expanded from 8 to 12 dots high (by means of the
character attribute) during printing. But be careful: the algorithm for creating the NLQ font
style and the bold face may not work properly in these cases.
The table of the new characters will be loaded in the printer's RAM. Remember that the
content of the RAM is cleared when you switch off the printer, so the DLL characters are
also lost. If you want to reuse your DLL characters, you must reload them whenever you
power on.
The DLL characters, to be
p
rinted, must be
p
reselected usin
g
the command
ESC I n
.
Consult the followin
g
command:
ESC =
: Customized characters
(
DLL
)
ESC =
n1 n
2
ID
m
Customized Characters
Hexadecimal code: 1B 3D
n1 n
2
..
character definin
g
p
arameters:
(
a b NUL
p
1..
p
11
)
k
Enables customized characters to be created and loads them into the
p
rinter's RAM.
Parameters
n1
and
n2
indicate the number of characters to be created and loaded with
the current code se
q
uence.
The ID is a fixed value code which must be:
(20)D
for a Draft Font and
(21)D
for a
ROMAN Font. (For further information about NLQ DLL characters, see the relevant
section of this chapter).
Parameter
m
indicates the decimal code of the first of the standard characters to be
replaced with customized characters. The customized characters that follow the first are
automatically assigned the following decimal codes.
B-26