APPLICATION NOTE #161 USING THE IBM 3812 PAGEPRINTER WITH XYWRITE Rev. 01 RELATED FILES: 3IBM3812.PRN The IBM 3812 Pageprinter is a table-top printer that uses an electrophotographic process for printing. The Pageprinter has 61 fonts available on disk and a character resolution of 240 by 240 picture elements per square inch. This application note contains information on the XyWrite printer file; in particular, this note explains how to activate various fonts, describes the available character sets, and provides the procedures for printing landscape and portrait on the same page and for using both paper trays. XYWRITE PRINTER FILE The printer file for the IBM 3812 Pageprinter is 3IBM3812.PRN. This printer file, which is available through XYQUEST's Technical Support Department, uses PMP (Page Map Primitive) commands to control the printer. At the beginning of the printer file is a list of all available fonts. The printer file contains font tables and width tables for all the fonts listed. However, to keep the printer file to a manageable size, we created PT (Print Type) tables for only the most commonly used fonts. If you want to access a different font, simply create a new PT table. (Refer to application note #162.) ACTIVATING THE FONTS FONTLOAD.CC, which is available on the IBM Pageprinter 3812 PC Aid diskette, is a set of PMP macros that load fonts into specific font numbers; it eliminates the need to load a font each time it's required. The XyWrite printer file uses the macros and specific font numbers associated with the FONTLOAD.CC file. To use the printer file, you must be sure that FONTLOAD.CC is in the Pageprinter's memory. Copy FONTLOAD.CC from the IBM 3812 PC Aid diskette onto your working disk or into the XyWrite directory on your hard disk. Then load FONTLOAD.CC into the Pageprinter's memory by typing the following command at the DOS prompt: COPY FONTLOAD.CC LPTn:/B where n is the number of the port to which your printer is connected. (See Note #1.) CHARACTER SETS All of the fonts use a selection of printable characters known as a codepage (see Note #2). There are seven different code~pages (or character sets): Name Abbrev. PC/ASCII ASCII Multi-lingual MLP MATH/SYMBOL CP259 APL PC/APL KATAKANA PC/KATAKANA HEBREW PC/HEBREW OCR-A PC/OCR-A In the XyWrite printer file, the name of the appropriate codepage appears in parentheses after the font name. Most of the fonts on the Pageprinter disk use the MLP codepage, which replaces some of the ASCII line drawing characters with more characters from Western European languages. A listing of all the characters for each codepage is included in the Pageprinter's Programming Reference Enhanced Support Manual. MIXING LANDSCAPE AND PORTRAIT PRINTING In portrait orientation, words are printed across the 8-1/2-inch dimension (or width) of the page, and in landscape orientation the words are printed across the 11-inch dimension (or length) of the page. The IBM Pageprinter allows you to combine portrait and landscape printing on the same page. When you do, the printing position moves to the top left corner of the new page orientation. The printer file contains a PC (Printer Control) table that defines the control codes for changing the printing orientation of the Pageprinter. The Pageprinter supports four different orientations, each of which is assigned to a line in the PC table as follows: PC 3 Portrait (right side up) PC 4 Landscape left PC 5 Portrait (upside down) PC 6 Landscape right The default orientation is portrait, so you only need to use PC 3 when returning from a different orientation. To change orientation, type the appropriate PC command. For example, to change to a landscape left orientation: 1. Call your document to the screen. 2. Move the cursor to where you want to change orientation to landscape left. 3. Type: F5pc 4 To return to normal orientation: 1. Move the cursor to where you want to change orientation. 2. Type: F5pc 3 Remember, when you change the orientation you also change the printing position. PAPER TRAYS The IBM Pageprinter provides two paper trays. The PC table in 3IBM3812.PRN includes the commands needed to select the primary (top) and secondary paper tray. The default is the primary tray. To access the secondary tray: 1. Call your document to the screen. 2. Move the cursor to where you want to start printing from the secondary tray. 3. Type: F5pc 2 To return to the primary tray: 1. Move the cursor to where you want to start printing from the primary tray. 2. Type: F5pc 1 Because the primary tray is the default tray, it is not necessary to use a PC 1 command except when returning from the secondary tray. Note #1 Automatic Startup. To automatically load the FONTLOAD.CC file to the printer, place the COPY command in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Note #2 Character Sets. In order to save space on the Pageprinter's diskette, IBM adapted every font to a certain codepage, but on the less popular fonts did not include every symbol or character. In these cases, IBM activates an alternate font to fill in the missing characters, which means you may get a character in the Courier font when you don't expect it. Refer to the IBM Pageprinter documentation for more information. Note #3 IBM Graphics Printer. Because the IBM 3812 printer emulates the IBM Graphics Printer, you can also use the printer file 3IBM5152.PRN. Note #4 More Information. For more information on printer files in general, refer to Chapter 6 of the XyWrite III Plus Reference Guide.