5525B/31/32 Line Matrix Printer PCL II Programmer's Reference Manual

Programmable VFC
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A second method involves only providing a “1” in CH3 where print will occur.
The programmer then simply calls CH3 and the blank lines are skipped.
There still is no flexibility for adding or deleting lines without VFC modification,
but line counting is minimized.
A third method involves assigning VFC channels to each section of the letter
and performing a call to CH3 within each section. To do this, the manufacturer
highly recommends following these guidelines:
• CH1 should always define TOF and must be present for a valid load.
• CH2 should always define BOF allowing for vertical margin (if any) and
must be present for valid paper out conditions.
• CH3 should be present for any potential print line except in the vertical
margin area (if any).
For this example, CH1 will occur at line 1 and is aligned with the Company
Name. We will arbitrarily assign CH4 to occur at line 7 (Opening Line), CH5 to
occur at line 10 (Body), CH6 to occur on line 17 (Closing Line) and CH7 to
occur on line 20 (P.S. Line).
With the above channel assignments in mind, the programmer would call CH1
to begin the letter. After printing the name and address (using calls to CH3 to
“move” to each line) the programmer would call CH4 to skip to line 7 and print
the opening line. Next, a call is made to CH5 to skip to line 10 and print the
body, CH6 to print the closing and CH7 to print the P.S. line. This gives each
section flexibility by allowing variable sizes, limited by the physical room
available before interfering with the next section and avoiding the drudgery of
line count.
The above VFC would look like:
Channel 12345678910111213141516
Line 1 1 1
Line 2 1
Line 3 1
Line 4 1
Line 5 1
Line 6 1
Line 7 1 1
Line 8 1
Line 9 1
Line 10 1 1
Line 11 1
Line 12 1
Line 13 1
Line 14 1
Line 15 1
Line 16 1
Line 17 1 1
Line 18 1
Line 19 1
Line 20 1 1
Line 21 1 1
NOTE: A “1” corresponds to a hole punched in a physical paper tape.