Laser Printer Applications Manual

THE STAR LASERPRINTER 8 SUPERSET

Do you need to send commands?

Here’s an important fact: you can set nearly every one of the above

pararnctcrsby sending your printer a correspondingEscape sequence

command.ThoseEscapesequencecommandswilloverrideanysettingyou

makefromthe frontpanel.

Themainthingto realizeaboutmostprintercommands,though,is thatyou

probablydon’t need to use them. Nearly all popularsoftwarepackages

includeprinterdrivers,whichsendcommandsto the printerso youdon’t

haveto typethemyourself.Someof thoseprogramsaskyouto keyin set-

up paramctcn about your printer. Other programs let you put printer

commandsbeforeor insidethe documentyouwantto print.

Butmaybethesoftwareyouusedoesn’thaveprinterdriversforanyprinter

yourStarLaserPnntcr8emulates:Youstillmightnothaveto writepnntcr

commandsyourself.

Severalcompaniessell programsthatlook afterlaser-printingcommands

for such software. Ask your dealer about

LaserControl, Printworks for

Lasers, PCLPak

andRAM Resident Printmerge. There’snotmuchpointin

reinventingthe wheel.

The Star LaserPrinter8 superset

Besides the commands that emulate other printers, your laser printer

understandsfourothercommandscalledthe StarLaserPrinter8

superset.

The Star LaserPrintcralways understandssupersetcommands;it doesn’t

matterwhichemulationmodeyourprinterisusingatthemomcnl.Supcrsct

Escapesequencecommandsstafl wilh <ESC> [ so you can quicklyspot

themin a listof commands.

Onesupcrsetcommandgivesyouanotherwaytoswitchfromoneemulation

to another:you sendthe ChangeEmulationsupersetcommandinsteadof

usingthe frontpanel.The secondsupersetcommandlets you changethe

printingorientation,so you can printsidewaysup the lengthof the page,

insteadofacrossitswidthintheusualway.Thethirdsupcrsctcommandlets

youchangethepapersize.Thefourthsupersctcommandletsyouchangethe

papercassettefor thedual-cassetteprinter.