Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    
    1. Pitch size in NLQ
    
    I believe in order to change the NLQ pitch size you must do it by
    changing the "pitch" in the excellence! "page setup menu".
    
    2. Print styles, etc
    
    I don't know anything about an LA75 but I've V1.1 of excellence! under
    1.3 with that Epson drive and bold, italics, etc worked for me (the 
    printer was an NEC P5200 though).
    
    You probably know this but make sure the EPSON driver and
    PRINTER.DEVICE driver are both 1.3 versions.   If either is a 1.2
    version things won't work correctly.
    
    3. Debugging
    
    If your looking for proper escape sequences you have to make sure
    you're looking at the right ones.  The excellence! tech-rep told
    me that when you write to a file from the excellence! print requestor
    that the escape sequences in that file are compatable with the 
    PRINTER.DEVICE interface, NOT the printer.  Exellence! never sends
    anything directly to a printer.  Sequence is:
    
    excellence! --> printer.device --> print-driver --> printer
    
    I guess you can capture actual printer escape sequences by using CMD
    re-direction of 1.3 to send print-driver output to a file (or) maybe
    the LA75 has a hex dump feature.  Most of the common print problems
    are a mismatch in printer and print-drivers.  Being EPSON compatible
    apparently does not mean the same thing to all printer manufacturers.
    
    I may be mistaken but I thought I read somewhere that an LA75 had
    to be in IBM mode rather than DEC mode to work correctly.  Sorry I
    couldn't offer more.
    
    Frank
    
    
    within
    the 

    
    Thanks for the ideas. Yes,  it does seem to be some sort of a problem
    with drivers.
    
    The 12 pitch seting in Page Setup does in fact generate the 12cpi
    horizontal pitch escape sequence in the output file and repacks the
    text on the screen OK. However, the vertical pitch escape sequence remains
    stuck on 6lpi, which I presume cant be changed in Excellence????
    
    Unfortunately though, this does nothing for my LA75, which still 
    ignores all the escape sequences!!!!!!
    
    Can some good person please confirm if you successfully run Excellence on
    an LA75 in DEC mode? 
    
    If so, can you please do a DIR sometime on your program disk and tell
    me whats in your DEVS subdirectory.
    
    I am using the WB1.3 PRINTER.DEVICE and EPSONX drivers. I was somewhat
    surprised to find that they are also actually installed under /DEVS on
    the Excellence program disk (I have WB1.3 in DF: and Excellence! in
    DF1:). Does Excellence! change the DEVS: assignments when it  is
    invoked?I have replaced these from my 1.3 boot disk just to make sure,
    and still no success. However, the SERIAL.DEVICE only exists on my
    WB1.3 boot disk, not on my Program disk - does this matter? 
    
    Another possibility was that I have some sort of a virus, but my
    virus checkers (6 months out of data) dont pick up anything, including
    a search for a TTV1 file virus. 
    
    Next step is to go back to Square 1 to recopy all drivers from my
    original kit disks just in case, if someone can first tell me their LA75
    works OK on this product. 
    
    Thanks in advance,
    
    
    
    Thanks!

    
    Actually, I think I gave you bad info.  I said I had tried Excellence!
    with that print driver.  That was incorrect.  I had used EPSONQ rather
    than EPSONX.
    
    You CAN change the vertical pitch within excellence! but it takes a
    combination of things.  It takes a combination of the correct setting
    of the "vertical pitch gadget" (the rightmost gadget of the excellence!
    gadgets) and appropriate font size.  On normal excellence! start up,
    this number is set to 12.   The relationship is as follows:
    
    (72)/(6 lpi in NLQ mode) = (12 "as in the excellence! gadget") 
    
    The 12 from in the excellence! gadget is comes from the fact that topaz-11
    is  11 pixels high.  For single spacing you set the value of the gadget to
    the number of pixels in the font plus one (11+1=12).
    
    Therefore to get 8 lpi you need to get that gadget number down to 9.
    
    (72)/(8 lpi in NLQ mode) = 9
    
    Now, excellence! will not let you make that number smaller than 
    (font size)+1 Therefore you need to use an amiga font that's between
    6-8 pixels high (I think 6 is the smallest that excellence will
    except).   I think you should be able yo get 8 lpi by using topaz-8
    and setting the excellence! pitch gadget to 9.  I haven't tried this
    but that's the way MSS claims it's done.
    
    Good luck.
    Frank
    
    PS - I still think I red somewhere that an LA75 has to be in IBM mode
         to work correctly.  I'll see if I can find where I read that.
       
    

    
    See note 3321.1
    
    tells you briefly how to use LA75 with commodore 1.3 driver
    
    

    
    Thanks Frank  (.3). 
    
    I didnt have the exact formula, but figured it was working something
    like that. 
    
    However, in the situation described in (.2) I was using Topaz 8 with
    "vertical pitch gadget" set to 8 - the lowest allowed for that font
    size. On dumping, the vertical pitch was 6lpi.  I dont have any fonts
    smaller than 8 point, so cant go lower there.
    
    Is the 72 a constant, or does this vary too with page length etc
    (outside of the US, people use a metric paper size called A4 which is
    actually 11.66" long, so thats how I set up Excellence!).
    
    Re: .4  EPSONX and  DEC vs IBM Proprinter LA75 modes.
    
    Thanks, I am aware of all the Notes About EPSONX,  WB1.3 and printing in
    IBM Proprinter Mode, but I believe thats only half the story.  My
    understanding  is actually as follows.
    
    IBM Pro-printer mode is used for graphics printing, since nothing
    outside of DEC seems to understand anything about sixels (a great way
    of getting compression). When Excellence! prints entirely in graphics mode
    (default) on EPSONX everythings 100%, except that the graphics text
    characters are far too chunky (Kindword Superfonts were actually much
    better...)
    
    The other side of the coin though is that the IBM Pro-printer mode knows
    nothing about the ANSI 8 bit escape sequences, which start with the CSI
    (Control Sequence Introducer) sequence <ESC>[.  These CSI ANSI
    sequences are what seems to be generated by Excellence! in NLQ mode.
    The LA75 actually goes completely beserk when you try and print
    a file in this mode.  Its necessary to know what is being produced from
    any package to know which mode to switch the LA75 into. Complicated eh?
    
    Well, thats all wonderful theory, but my LA75 still ignores the escape
    sequences, so I'm still "up the creek".......
    
    Anyone actually working successfully off Excellence! NLQ on an LA75???
    
    
    
    
    
    
     

    
    .re -1
    
    > is 72 a constant .....
    
    I believe it is a constant.  It was explained to me that excellence!
    does its calculation basd on "points" (ie 72 points/inch) and that's
    where it comes from.  I think there's a little black magic also
    involved because I've had noting but grief (and only moderate success)
    trying to map amiga fonts/pixels to anyhing that resembles "points".
    
    Frank
    
    

    Just out of curiosity, is anyone using excellence! v2.0 yet?  Their
    ad says something about "special HP support".  I'm looking for a good
    WYSIWYG word processor that will take advantage of the features built
    into my (non-PostScript) HP LaserJet III printer.  I know I could add
    a PostScript cartridge (and RAM), but that costs about $750 which I'd
    rather invest elsewhere (like a faster CPU).

    I have Pro Write, which I like, but its output spacing is all messed
    up if I use anything other than the Courier builtin font.  And screen
    fonts look so-o-o-o ugly!

    The best I've been able to do so far has been Word Perfect, but page
    layout in WP is strictly trial and error (with a dash of black magic).

    
    re .7
    
    I've been using 2.0 since it came out 6/20/90 (actually 2.0a).  They
    made a great number of improvements in this version but I'm not sure
    I'd say they did anything special for HP support.  
    
    There is simply a single paragraph in the update literature that says:
    "When using the HP DeskJet or InkJet printer set your printers DIP
     switches as follows: A8 and B2 must be set UP and all others must be
     set DOWN.  With the dip switches set correctly use the default Page
     Settings in excellence!.  No adjustment to the page heightt or page
     width is necessary.  If you own a LaserJet printer you may also use 
     the default page setup values and Amiga DOS Preferences settings of 66
     lines per page".
    
    They also included a PD inhanced print driver for the HP_PaintJet. 
    That's all I can find regarding HP support.
    
    Excellence! screen fonts are no better or worse than what you see with 
    Pro-Write.   The major reason I like it for its postscript (REAL
    WYSIWYG).  It's all built in and the PS writer is very fast.  Works
    directly on LPS40 with no hitches.  V2.0 also supports color postscript
    (can't seem to locate a color printer to test it on).   If postscript
    is what your looking for, excellence! comes with Times, Helvetica,
    Courier, Symbol fonts. In addition you can use the Adobe fonts on the
    1.3 extras disk (Times, Helvitica, Courier having slightly different
    sizes).  V2.0 also comes with a utility for converting the Professional
    Page postscript fonts (metric file formats) so they can also be used in
    excellence!.
    
    It's dictionary, thesaurus, and grammar checker are very good (and big). 
    The disadvantage as compared to Pro-Write is that it gives you very 
    limited capability to mix text and graphics.  For me that's ok, my
    primary objective is good WYSIWYG and ease of getting text on the
    LPS40.
    
    Frank
    
    
     

    Re -.1
    
    I think if you can find an LJ250 hooked up and driven by a PSPRINT
    queue you might find the support for colour postscript, can't be sure
    but would be interesting to see if it worked.
    
    Mike

    
    Well, heres the last word on using Excellence V1.2 / WB 1.3 on LA75's
    (LA50's/LA100) and LJ250's in Near Letter Quality mode to answer my own
    question. I've found combinations that work happily in NLQ mode, that
    produce crisp, clear LQ quality Courier text.
    
    This applies to text only, since I havent tested with graphic inserts
    yet. But text is generally all I want to do with NLQ anyway.
    
    Method
    
    I have spent a few happy(?) hours dumping the serial channel output of
    some of the WB 1.3 printer drivers to files from Excellence using CMD
    redirection. The escape sequences have been interpreted against the
    LA75 DEC and IBM Proprinter modes, LJ250 DEC and HP modes, and EPSON FX
    technical specs.
    
    All results were generated from a test file containing 
    
    		- 8 point Ruby font,
    		- "aspect ratio" of 7 on the screen gadget
    		- 12cpi horizontal pitch on setting in "Print" Option.
    		- bolded, underlined and italic styles for some words
    
    This is the setup intended to generate 8lpi vertical and 12 characters
    per inch horizontal.
    
    Results
    -------
    
    1. DRIVER  - NONE.     PRINTER - LA75 IN DEC MODE
    			
    Use "Output To File" print option, with "SER:" as the filename.
    
    Standard Excellence input to all Ami print drivers is in
    ANSI standard format ie. it uses CSI (Control Sequence Introducers)
    of <ESC>[.  These are directly understood by the LA75 firmware in DEC
    mode, unlike most other printers which dont use the official standard.
    
    Using "SER:" (serial device) completely bypasses the PRT: printer drivers
    otherwise used for direct NLQ output.
    
    Outcome: Most things work OK - 12cpi, LQ, italics, bolding etc with
             following exceptions
    
    		- 6 lpi only.  The very first escape sequence generated is
    		  <ESC>[1z.  I dont know what standard MSS/COMMODORE is
    		  using, but this is the DEC (purportedly ANSI) "Set Vertical 
    		  Pitch - 6lpi" setting.  <ESC>[2z is what is really needed to
    		  do 8lpi.  This seems to be an error by one of the vendors
    		  somewhere along the way.
    
    		- since the Excellence source text is at 8 lpi, the
    		  lines/page somehow needs to be adjusted to produce a
    		  form feed page break every 66 lines to get the page break
    		  right (havent done this yet).
    
    		- When using "SER:" there is no printer hardware interrupt
    		  monitoring for "out of paper" etc. So make sure
    		  everything is absolutely ready to roll when you go to
    		  print.
    
    		- it is possible to Output to a disk file instead of SER:,
    		  and use an Editor or write a simple BASIC program, to
    		  change the 3rd character in the file from a "1" to a "2"
    		  to get 8lpi. This is inconvenient and a pain in the bum,
    		  but its one way to print something important at 8lpi.
    		  (You still need to bypass device drivers using the CLI
    		  command "COPY file-name SER:", dont use PRT:
    
    Introductory escape sequences interpretation:
    		 CSI 1 z    	--> 6  lpi vertical
    		 CSI 2 w   	--> 12 cpi horizontal pitch
    		 CSI 2 " z      --> LQ printing
    		 CSI 3 0 m      --> not applicable to LA75 - ignored
    		 CSI 4 7 m      --> not applicable to LA75 - ignored
    
    
    2. DRIVER - WB1.3 HP PAINTJET    PRINTER - LJ250 Inkjet in HP PCL MODE
    
    To put an LJ250 into HP PCL (Printer Command Lnguage) mode, just press
    the DEC/PCL touch control on the top panel so that the orange light
    is OFF. It is also important you use the properly treated "shiny"
    high quality paper with ink jet printers (aavailable from DECdirect).
    
    Outcome: Everything works GREAT! Italics are unsupported
             (print as ordinary text).
    
    Introductory escape sequence interpretation:
    
    	<ESC> & d @		--> underline off
    	<ESC> ( s 0 B		--> normal primary stroke weight ie. not bolded
    	<ESC> & k 4 S		--> 12cpi (chars/inch) horiz pitch
    	<ESC> ( 0 U		--> ISO US ASCII character set
    	<ESC> & 1 8 D		--> 8lpi (lines/inch)vertical pitch
    	<ESC> & v 0 0 0 S       --> text colour black
    	<ESC> & 1 0 8 8 F	--> 88 lines/page
    
    
    			- to change the text colour, the output could be
    			  captured in a file using the Ami CLI command
    			  CMD SERIAL file-name opt s
    		          and an Editor or program used to change the
    			  <ESC>&v00nS sequence, where n=
    
    					0 - black
    					1 - red
    					2 - green
    					3 - yellow
    					4 - blue
    					5 - magenta
    					6 - cyan
    					7 - white
    
    
    3. DRIVERS  - EPSONX      PRINTER - LA75 IN IBM PROPRINTER MODE
                - EPSONXOLD
    		- CBM_1000
    
    Outcome: These combination is pretty useless for 12cpi/8lpi, although
    	     it might perhaps get some mileage at 10cpi/6lpi.  My advice
    	     is to gove them a miss.
    
             There are a lot of introductory escape sequences generated
    	     for an EPSON X compatible printer, only a few of which are
    	     understood by the IBM Proprinter, and some that arent.
             I have looked at both their intended EPSON X and
             LA75 IBM Proprinter mode interpretations.
    
             None of the 3 drivers produce a 12cpi horizontal pitch
             or LQ sequence.
    	     
      	     One of the other basic problems with endeavouring to use the
             EPSONX and CBM_1000
    	     drivers is that a number of <DC2> (Device Control 2)
    	     sequences are generated in the intitialisation sequences.
    	     In a true EPSON X, this means simply "Cancel Compressed Mode",
    	     to set the printer to normal printing. Unfortunately, on the
    	     IBM Proprinter <DC2> means "set 10cpi", which would override
    	     any prior extrenal setting.
    
    	     Of the 3 drivers EPSONXOLD looks like the closest to an IBMPro
    	     It  doesnt have any <DC2>'s to contend with if the LA75 is
    	     software-set to 12 cpi horizontal externally before attempting
    	     to print from Excellence! Of the 3, it is the only one that
    	     generates an 8lpi vertical sequence.
    
    			
    Happy DEC-printing!

    
    Well, the reason we cant get 8lpi vertical output using SER: in DEC
    mode (see extract from .10 following) as the output device is that the
    Amiga uses a later ANSI standard than the LA75, and there is a
    difference in the Vertical pitch sequence.
    
    Commodore Amiga specs for input from applications (including
    Excellence) to all print drivers uses ANSI X3.64, vertical pitch 8lpi 
    = CSI 1 z.
    
    Our beloved LA75 uses an earlier ANSI standard X3.4-1977 and
    X3.32-1973, where CSI 1 z = 6 lpi vertical pitch. 8 lpi is actually
    CSI 2 z. 
    
    This explains why I have never been able to get 8lpi working on
    my LA75 in DEC mode from ANY Amiga WP.
    
    Relevant extract from .10 follows
    ========================================================================
    1. DRIVER  - NONE.     PRINTER - LA75 IN DEC MODE
    			
    Use "Output To File" print option, with "SER:" as the filename.
    
    
    Outcome: Most things work OK - 12cpi, LQ, italics, bolding etc with
             following exceptions
    
    		- 6 lpi only.  The very first escape sequence generated is
    -->		  <ESC>[1z.  I dont know what standard MSS/COMMODORE is
    -->		  using, but this is the DEC (purportedly ANSI) "Set Vertical 
    -->		  Pitch - 6lpi" setting.  <ESC>[2z is what is really needed to
    -->		  do 8lpi.  This seems to be an error by one of the vendors
    -->		  somewhere along the way.
    ========================================================================

    
    Not encouraging but!
    
    I believe printer vendors conform to the interfcace standards for
    communication to the printer.device.  The Comodore RKM specifies:
     
     ESC[0z for 8lpi spacing
     ESC[1z for 6lpi spacing
    
    The RKM indicate that individual escape sequences are either ISO
    (similar to ansi x3.64), DEC, or "other".   Turns out 6/8 lpi 
    sequences are in the "other" category.
    
    Frank