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Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS


Started by Karinda
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Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

Download: document004.pdf

I am unable to recreate printer output from LegEasy4DOS in that the overall 4.53 print layout is moved 1/2" right increasing the LH margin and an additional line of unknown characters precede the top data line and follow the last printer line. Also some 4.53 printer control characters embedded in the output print definition, such as change to 5cpi, are ignored.

Attached documents 001 and 003 are printed from 4.53 apps running under WinXP. Documents 002 and 004 are LegEasy4DOS output for the same apps running under Windows7. The printer being used is Brother HL-L5000D which Is using parallel port LPT1 from WinXP and a USB port from Windows7. The same printer layout codes are being used on both systems.

Because of the use of printer control characters in the printer output definition the printer output file has been set to RAW. Consequently  I would expect the output received by the printer to be identical unless there are hidden differences between output via parallel port ans output via a USB port.


Written by Karinda 11/10/18 at 13:16:12 LegEasy 4DOS

Re:Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

The first problem is that the printer is not receiving the output as raw as the printer codes are interpreted as text. In RAW mode LegEasy4DOS will simply let the output pass-through without any interference so there is only two ways you can get this result:
1. It is not in RAW mode.
2. The wrong printer driver is selected for the workstation in DFD.

However as there is native support for Printers in text mode is very much abandoned and most "young" generations don't even know what it is LegEasy4DOS 1.0 support Epson MX/IBM Proprinter which it will format and transform to the correct Windows Format.

The best way to get a good result in L4D is simply to use EPSON MX-80 as the ONLY printer in the application and let L4D do the correct conversion.

By using RAW mode one will also be responsible for page formatting/page feed etc.


Written by DataEase 12/10/18 at 12:17:50 LegEasy 4DOS

Re:Re:Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

The DataEase printer file for Epson MX-80 does not define a string to start using 12cpi. All my reports output a 12cpi printout to get more than 80 characters (96) along one print line. What string do I need to define 12cpi?  At present the reports appear to be 16 or 17.16 cpi.

Where can I get a list of formatting codes relating to Epson MX-80 ? Other printers have codes that are easier to determine how to set up a cpi setting for a new pitch.


Written by Karinda 12/10/18 at 16:54:03 LegEasy 4DOS

Re:Re:Re:Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

Can't get back to edit my earlier comment.

I didn't quite follow the comment about "the wrong printer drive being selected for the workstation in DFD". That system is on a laptop running Windows XP and the driver has remained constant. Being 4.53DOS the whole of the procedures that have printed output have given it correctly for the last 20 years.


Written by Karinda 12/10/18 at 17:21:10 LegEasy 4DOS

Re:Re:Re:Re:Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

If the printer is actually in RAW mode then the output from 4.53 will be sent directly to the printer and no margins etc. will be added by LegEasy4DOS. The fact that you get print codes at the top and margins is evidence that it is not being printed in RAW mode.

It might be a bug in your version. Try to configure another print port for RAW and see if you get a different result.

LegEasy4DOS is emulation on all levels to allow you to run DFD in a x64 environment so it's not comparable to running this native in the past. The software take into account on all levels that the environment that existed when DFD was created is extinct and that goes from CPU/Memory/Networks and printers.

Our goal is to emulate all of these so the application can be run "as is" in a modern environment with modern printers.

Epson MX and HP Laserjet is supported by all modern printers for legacy purposes while their own native dialects has been abandoned so we need to standardise on what modern hardware support.


Written by DataEase 16/10/18 at 14:29:43 LegEasy 4DOS

Re:Re:Re:Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

Epson printer codes

Epson FX Printer Codes

<B>	Printer Operation:</B>
<B>	Decimal      ASCII		    Description</B>
	 7	     BEL	  Beeper
	17	     DC1	  Select printer
	19	     DC3	  Deselect printer
	27 25 48     ESC EM 0	  Turn cut sheet feeder control off
	27 25 52     ESC EM 4	  Turn cut sheet feeder control on
	27 56	     ESC 8	  Disable paper out sensor
	27 57	     ESC 9	  Enable paper out sensor
	27 60	     ESC <	  Select unidirectional mode for one line
	27 64	     ESC @	  Initialize printer
	27 85 48     ESC U 0	  Cancel unidirectional mode
	27 85 49     ESC U 1	  Select unidirectional mode
	27 115 48    ESC s 0	  Turn half speed mode off
	27 115 49    ESC s 1	  Turn half speed mode on

<B>	Vertical/Horizontal Motion:</B>
<B>	Decimal      ASCII		    Description</B>
	 8	     BS 	  Backspace
	 9	     HT 	  Horizontal tab
	10	     LF 	  Line Feed
	11	     VT 	  Vertical Tab
	12	     FF 	  Form Feed
	27 47 c      ESC / c	  Select vertical tab channel (c=0..7)
	27 48	     ESC 0	  Select 8 lines per inch
	27 49	     ESC 1	  Select 7/72 inch line spacing
	27 50	     ESC 2	  Select 6 lines per inch
	27 51 n      ESC 3 n	  Select n/216 inch line spacing (n=0..255)
	27 65 n      ESC A n	  Select n/72 inch line spacing (n=0..85)
	27 66 0      ESC B NUL	  Clear Vertical tabs
	27 66 tabs   ESC B tabs   Select up to 16 vertical tabs where tabs are
				  ascending values from 1..255 ending with NUL
	27 67 n      ESC C n	  Select page length in lines (n=1..127)
	27 67 48 n   ESC C 0 n	  Select page length in inches (n=1..22)
	27 68 0      ESC D NUL	  Clears all horizontal tables
	27 68 tabs 0 ESC D tabs NUL  Sets up to 32 horizontal tabs with
				  ascending values 1-137.  NUL or a value
				  less than previous tab ends command.
	27 74 n      ESC J n	  Immediate n/216 inch line feed (n=0..255)
	27 78 n      ESC N n	  Select skip over perforation (n=1..127)
	27 79	     ESC O	  Cancel skip over perforation
	27 81 n      ESC Q n	  Set right margin (n=column)
	27 98 b c 0  ESC b c NUL  Clear vertical tabs in channel (c=0..7)
	27 98 c tabs ESC b c tabs Select up to 16 vertical tabs in channels
				  (c=0..7) where tabs are ascending values
				  from 1..255 ending with NUL
	27 101 48 s  ESC e 0 s	  Set horizontal tab to increments of 's'
	27 101 49 s  ESC e 1 s	  Set vertical tab to increments of 's'
	27 102 48 s  ESC f 0 s	  Set horizontal skip to increments of 's'
	27 102 49 s  ESC f 1 s	  Set vertical skip to increments of 's'
	27 106 n     ESC j n	  Reverse linefeed (n/216 inch after buffer)
	27 108 n     ESC l n	  Set left margin (n=column)

<B>	Printing Style:</B>
<B>	Decimal      ASCII		    Description</B>
	27 33 n      ESC ! n	  Master select where n is a combination of:
				    0  Pica		 16  Double Strike
				    1  Elite		 32  Double Wide
				    4  Condensed	 64  Italic
				    8  Emphasized	128  Underline
				  Pica & Elite and Condensed/Emphasized are
				  mutually exclusive
	27 107 48    ESC k 0	  Select NLQ Roman font
	27 107 49    ESC k 1	  Select NLQ Sans Serif font
	27 120 48    ESC x 0	  Select draft mode
	27 120 49    ESC x 1	  Select NLQ mode

<B>	Print Size and Character Width:</B>
<B>	Decimal     ASCII		   Description</B>
	14	    SO		  Select double width for one line
	15	    SI		  Select condensed mode
	18	    DC2 	  Cancel condensed mode
	20	    DC4 	  Cancel one line double width mode
	27 14	    ESC SO	  Double width for one line (duplicate)
	27 15	    ESC SI	  Select condensed mode (duplicate)
	27 77	    ESC M	  Select elite width (12 cpi)
	27 80	    ESC P	  Select pica width (10 cpi)
	27 87 48    ESC W 0	  Cancel double width mode
	27 87 49    ESC W 1	  Select double width mode

<B>	Print Enhancement:</B>
<B>	Decimal     ASCII		   Description</B>
	27 45 48    ESC - 0	  Cancel underlining
	27 45 49    ESC - 1	  Select underlining
	27 69	    ESC E	  Select emphasized mode
	27 70	    ESC F	  Cancel emphasized mode
	27 71	    ESC G	  Select double strike mode
	27 72	    ESC H	  Cancel double strike mode
	27 83 48    ESC S 0	  Select superscript
	27 83 49    ESC S 1	  Select subscript
	27 84	    ESC T	  Cancel superscript/subscript

<B>	Character Sets:</B>
<B>	Decimal     ASCII		   Description</B>
	27 52	    ESC 4	  Select italic mode
	27 53	    ESC 5	  Cancel italic mode
	27 54	    ESC 6	  Enable printing of characters (128-159,255)
	27 55	    ESC 7	  Cancel [ESC 6] command
	27 82 n     ESC R n	  Select International character set where
				  numeric 'n' is:
				    0  USA		  7  Spain I
				    1  France		  8  Japan
				    2  Germany		  9  Norway
				    3  United Kingdom	 10  Denmark II
				    4  Denmark I	 11  Spain II
				    5  Sweden		 12  Latin America
				    6  Italy
	27 116 0    ESC t NUL	 Select italic character set
	27 116 1    ESC t SOH	 Select Epson character set
	
<B>	User Defined Characters:</B>
<B>	Decimal		ASCII			Description</B>
	27 37 0      ESC % NUL		Selects normal character set
	27 37 1      ESC % SOH		Selects user defined set
	27 38 0      ESC & NUL ?	Select user defined chars (see manual)
	27 58 0 0 0  ESC : NUL NUL NUL	Copy ROM into RAM

<B>	Graphics Character Sets:</B>
<B>	Decimal		ASCII			Description</B>
	27 42 0 n1 n2  ESC * NUL n1 n2	Select single density graphics
	27 42 1 n1 n2  ESC * SOH n1 n2	Select double density graphics
	27 63 s n      ESC ? s n	Reassign graphics mode
					's'=(K,L,Y or Z) to mode 'n'=(0..6)
	27 75 n1 n2    ESC K n1 n2	Single density graphics (60 dpi)
	27 76 n1 n2    ESC L n1 n2	Double density graphics (120 dpi)
	27 89 n1 n2    ESC Y n1 n2	Hi-speed double den graphics (120 dpi)
	27 90 n1 n2    ESC Z n1 n2	Quad density graphics (240 dpi)
	27 94 m n1 n2  ESC ^ m n1 n2	Select 9 pin graphics mode

	number of columns = n1 + (n2 * 256)

<B>	Other:</B>
<B>	Decimal      ASCII		    Description</B>
	 13	     CR 	  Carriage Return
	 24	     CAN	  Cancel text in line (but not control codes)
	127	     DEL	  Delete character (but not control codes)
	 27 32 n     ESC SP n	  Space in n/72 inch following each NLQ char
	 27 35	     ESC #	  MSB control sequence cancel
	 27 36	     ESC $	  Select absolute dot position
	 27 61	     ESC =	  MSB = 0
	 27 62	     ESC >	  MSB = 1
	 27 73 48    ESC I 0	  Cancel above [ESC I 1]
	 27 73 49    ESC I 1	  Printable codes expansion (0-31,128-159)
	 27 92	     ESC \	  Select relative dot position
	 27 97	n    ESC a n	  NLQ justification where numeric 'n' is:
				    0  left justification  (default)
				    1  center
				    2  right justification
				    3  full justification
	 27 112      ESC p	  Select/cancel proportional mode


	- the codes listed are relative to the Epson LX 800
	- in several situations where a numeric value of zero or one is
	  required, the ASCII value of the number can be substituted

Written by DataEase 16/10/18 at 14:36:30 LegEasy 4DOS

Re:Re:Re:Re:Printer format problems after moving 4.53DOS applications to LegEasy4DOS

In DFD printer definitions codes need to be written in Hex.

So for 12CPI it is 1B4D.


Written by DataEase 16/10/18 at 14:41:16 LegEasy 4DOS
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