User-defined Characters
Designing your characters
Userdeked
characters are like dot graphics because you send
the-
printer
pm&e
instructions on where you want each dot printed. In
fact, planning
a
user-defined character is like planniqg a small dot
graphics pattern. In this mode, you treat the printer as if it had a
single column of nine pins.
Design grids
To design a draft character you use a grid that has nine rows and
eleven columns as shown below. The following figure shows three
of these grids. Most characters
do not use the two rows below the
heavy line.
Those rows are only for characters with descenders, like
y
and
g.
Also, even though you can use up to
11
columns, it is best to leave
the last two blank for the space between characters.
128
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
123456789
123456789
123456789
128
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
L
i i i
i
I
128
64
32
16
8
4
2
1
The grid in the middle shows the design. You can use up to eight
pins of your printer’s print head in a single user-defined character.
The design above uses the top eight pins, but you can also use the
bottom eight by using the grid on the right as explained later in this
section.
.
Software and Graphics
4-23
