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Conference hydra::amiga_v1

Title:AMIGA NOTES
Notice:Join us in the *NEW* conference - HYDRA::AMIGA_V2
Moderator:HYDRA::MOORE
Created:Sat Apr 26 1986
Last Modified:Wed Feb 05 1992
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5378
Total number of notes:38326

3814.0. "Kindwords superfonts on LA50?" by GVA02::SLOAN () Thu May 31 1990 08:14

Is there any way to print the Kindwords Superfonts on an LA50 in graphics
    mode?
    
    regards
    
    Steven
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3814.1AMIGA2::MCGHIEThank Heaven for small Murphys !Thu May 31 1990 23:1512
Yes/probably, if you feel like making up your own superdriver file
(thta's one of those .prn files).

I managed to make my Citoh 8510 work after much mucking around. The
superfonts specification file seems very flexible, just a pity they didn't
document the parameters and values !

Regards
	Mike

p.s. this supposes that you already have a standard workbench driver
that allows you to print graphics on your LA50.
3814.2DO you have the spec???GVA02::SLOANTue Jun 05 1990 05:166
    If you wrote one for the CITOH, did you manage to work out the SPEC
    of the .PRN file? If so, can you send it to me?
    
    Regards
    
    Steven
3814.3AMIGA2::MCGHIEThank Heaven for small Murphys !Tue Jun 05 1990 22:2612
Umm yes,

it's at home so I'll have to dig it out. I didn't work out all
of the details but managed to bumble my way through enough to make 
it work.

I'll dig it out and give you some pointers on the uses of some of the
parameters etc.

Might not be able to get around to it for a couple of days, so stay tuned.

Mike
3814.4Finely I'm back...NOTIBM::MCGHIEThank Heaven for small Murphys !Sun Jun 24 1990 08:18186
    Hi,
    
    Sorry it's taken a while to get back on this. I've not been near the
    Ami a lot in the last month.
    
    I had a look at the Superdriver file today and I'm not sure the file is
    flexible enough to output sixel data.
    
    I've included a partially hacked file that would support underscoring,
    bolding etc. Well at leat I pulled the escape sequences out of an LA75
    manual and they don't look to be too advanced so should be withing the
    LA50 capabilities.
    
    However for the real proper superfonts you need to be able to drive the
    LA50 in graphic mode. This means outputing data in sixel format. Now
    sixel is a pain, because it uses printable ascii characters to encode
    the 6 bits of data that the printer enterprets for graphics. I know
    there is a fair amount of flexibility built into this thing but whether
    or not you can bend it to sixel...
    
    For instance for my Citoh the graphics lead in sequence (+G) requires a
    escape sequence which includes in printable ascii digits the number of
    bytes following as data, e.g.
    
       <ESC>S004xxxx
    
    Where the 004 indicates that there are 4 ascii characters following as
    data. The xxxx just shows the data placement. The superdriver allowed
    me to specify it by using "+G <ESC>S %4D". If you look at a .prn file
    for an Epson or whatever you'll see the use of %2B. I assume the
    formatter works :-
    
    	% - format lead in character
    	n - number of digits to format
        f - Format character, B for binary, D for decimal.
    
    There doesn't seem to be a place for using the formatter in the lines
    which (I think) are used to format the output binary data.
    
    The lines that I think determine the output format of the data is :-
    
;
; Horizontal  Graphic Block ?
;
HORIZONTAL GRBLK=1
;
; This line would appear to tell the superdriver about the number of
; Vertical Motion Indicators that max up one inch ? Vertical dot
; density = 144 per inch.
;
VERT LF=0 FF=1 VMI=144 MAX=99
;
; This scan information controls the data being output to the printer
; driver.
; NBITS I suspect is the number of bits to process in each scan.
; BYTES is probably the number of output bytes.
; MSBBOT is Most Significant Bit at the Bottom (order for data for printhead
;                                               pin firing)
; PAD  pad out ? In the CBM MPS1000 it's set to 1, where as in mine it's 0.
;
SCAN ROWS=24 COLS=16 HORIZ=0 MSBBOT=0 PAD=0 NBITS=8 BYTES=1 INCS=16 SCANS=4
SINC ROW=2  COL=1
S1   ROW=1  COL=1 START=1 END=6
S2   ROW=2  COL=1 START=1 END=6
S3   ROW=13 COL=1 START=2 END=7
S4   ROW=14 COL=1 START=2 END=7
;
PASS NPASS=5 CPASS=3
P1 VERT=1  SCAN=1
P2 VERT=3  SCAN=2
P3 VERT=7  SCAN=0
P4 VERT=1  SCAN=3
P5 VERT=12 SCAN=4
;
    I really don't know. I think the driver is flexible enough to cater for
    most 'normal' graphic printers. However sixel is a Digital only
    standard so maybe the author(s) never thought to or completely avoided
    putting enough flexibility in to support somthing like sixel.
    
    If someone out there has telephone support for
    Kindwords maybe we could get them to ring the supplier. I got mine out
    of a 'starter pack' and there wasn't a registration card included
    (hmmm).
    
    Below is the complete file if you want to pick it up and play with it. 
    Sorry I can't give you the solution.
    
    Regards
    	Mike
    
; Copyright � International Comsumer Technologies 1987 ??
; LAxx Printer Driver based on the standard Imagewriter driver
; Not complete, the graphics section needs correcting.
;
; Bold enable/disable
B+ ESC [1m
B- ESC [22m
;
; Underline
U+ ESC [4m
U- ESC [24m
;
; Superscript
D+ ESC [?4m
D- ESC [?24m
;
; Subscript
E+ ESC [?4m
E- ESC [?24m
;
EXTENSION .PFT
;
FO ROMN12P  A        LETTER=1 PROP=0
FO ROMN12P  A        DRAFT=1
FO ROMN12B  B        LETTER=1 PROP=0
FO ROMN12B  B        DRAFT=1
FO ROMN12U  U        LETTER=1 PROP=0
FO ROMN12U  U        DRAFT=1
FO SUPR08P  D        PROP=0 LETTER=1
FO SUPR08P  D        DRAFT=1
FO SUBS08P  E        PROP=0 LETTER=1
FO SUBS08P  E        DRAFT=1
;
;
ID PITCH=12 DENSITY=136 HMI=136 MICRO=0 SPACE=12
IL PITCH=12 DENSITY=136 HMI=136 MICRO=0 SPACE=12
IN PITCH=12 DENSITY=136 HMI=136 MICRO=0 SPACE=12
ED PITCH=17 DENSITY=136 HMI=136 MICRO=0 SPACE=17
EL PITCH=17 DENSITY=136 HMI=136 MICRO=0 SPACE=17
EN PITCH=17 DENSITY=136 HMI=136 MICRO=0 SPACE=17
PD PITCH=10 DENSITY=160 HMI=160 MICRO=1 SPACE=10
PL PITCH=10 DENSITY=160 HMI=160 MICRO=1 SPACE=10
PN PITCH=10 DENSITY=160 HMI=160 MICRO=1 SPACE=10
;
; Graphics Mode
;
+G CR ESC [0q
-G ESC \
;
; High density graphics mode ?
;
$H ESC [4q
;
; Vertical spacing control ??? 
;
$V ESC T %2D LF
;
HORIZONTAL GRBLK=1
VERT LF=0 FF=1 VMI=144 MAX=99
;
; This scan information controls the data being output to the printer
; driver.
; NBITS I suspect is the number of bits to process in each scan.
; BYTES is probably the number of output bytes.
; MSBBOT is Most Significant Bit at the Bottom (order for data for printhead
;                                               pin firing)
;
SCAN ROWS=24 COLS=16 HORIZ=0 MSBBOT=0 PAD=0 NBITS=8 BYTES=1 INCS=16 SCANS=4
SINC ROW=2  COL=1
S1   ROW=1  COL=1 START=1 END=6
S2   ROW=2  COL=1 START=1 END=6
S3   ROW=13 COL=1 START=2 END=7
S4   ROW=14 COL=1 START=2 END=7
;
PASS NPASS=5 CPASS=3
P1 VERT=1  SCAN=1
P2 VERT=3  SCAN=2
P3 VERT=7  SCAN=0
P4 VERT=1  SCAN=3
P5 VERT=12 SCAN=4
;
+N ESC [0w
-N ESC [0w
+E ESC [2w
-E ESC [0w
+P ESC [4w
-P ESC [0w
+L ESC [2w
-L ESC [0w
+S ESC [0w
-S ESC [0w
;
DR PRN=1
;
UNDERLINE 32