
Read_Me file for Epson printers.
--------------------------------

This file is roughly in order of increasing printer functionality, ie. the
further down this file the printer definition file is described, the more
features it requires the printer to support. So if you are having problems
with an Epson compatible printer, try a printer definition file further up
than the one you are using. Note however that you should not try to run a 24
pin printer with the definition file for a 9 pin printer or vice versa. If
your Epson compatible printer gives no additional information (eg. which
Epson printer it claims compatibility with) then try the Epson.FX-80 file.
Moving forwards from the FX-80 file (towards the EX-800), more advanced
features of the printer are used. Moving backwards from the FX-80 file the
definitions become simpler.

When using any of the Epson printer definition files, with either an Epson
printer or a printer claiming to be Epson compatible, you should ensure that
any DIP switch called "IBM Mode" or "IBM control codes" or anything similar
is switched to disable the IBM features.

When using any type of MX-80 printer with any of the MX-80 definition files,
the printer must have its dip switches set for no auto line feed on carriage
return. This probably means setting DIP switch 2-3 to OFF, but you should
check the documentation for your printer. In the unlikely event that you
need auto line feed set to ON, then you can use !PrintEdit to remove the
trailing ",10" from the "Line skip:" and "Line end 1:" fields in the 60 by
72 and 120 by 72 DPI graphics resolutions. It is not possible to modify the
120 by 144 and 120 by 216 resolutions to allow them to work with auto line
feed enabled.

The "Epson.MX-80-II" printer definition file is for the Epson MX-80 Type II
printer and should work on virtually any EPSON compatible printer. The 120
by 144 and 120 by 216 DPI graphics resolutions are not guaranteed to work,
as they use ESC "J" for advance by n/216 inch. This is not documented in any
version of the manual, but has been found to work on many Epson MX-80 Type
II printers. You should not use these resolutions if your MX-80 Type II does
not support ESC "J". The text highlights available on this printer are
minimal (condensed and expanded text only). ISO Latin 1 international
character mappings are supplied, but every character is simply mapped to the
closest available normal ASCII character. This is because the MX-80 Type II
cannot do backspace over-printing nor does it support ESC "R" international
character set sequences. You should set the DIP switches for the USA
character set.

Note that there appears to be some discrepancy about the features supported
on the MX-80 Type II. There are at least two different versions of the MX-80
Type II manual, one of which details many more control sequences (eg. ESC
"R", ESC "E"/"F" and more) than the other. The extra control codes do not
work on some MX-80 Type II printers so there would appear to be two flavours
of "Type II" rather than the more likely explanation of the commands
originally being undocumented. The MX-80-II file supports only the commands
which work on most or all Type II printers.

The "Epson.MX-80-III" printer definition file is for the Epson MX-80 Type 
III printer and should work on many EPSON compatible printers. Vertical
interlacing is used on the higher resolution graphics modes, using ESC "J"
for advance by n/216 inch. This is a documented command on the MX-80 Type
III, unlike on the Type II. The text highlights available on this printer
are  reasonable. The ISO Latin 1 international characters are printed using
ESC "R" international character set sequences, using character sets 0 (USA)
to 7 (Spain). Additionally, some characters are printed by using backspace
to overprint two characters.

Note that on the MX-80 Type III there is a bug which causes double strike 
mode to be left on after superscript or subscript has been used and
deselected. This file works around the bug by turning double strike mode off
after turning superscript or subscript off. This should not cause problems
on a printer which does not have the bug (double strike will be changed from
off to off) but it will cause problems if your printer does not support ESC
"H" (double strike mode off). Note that ESC "G" and ESC "H" (turn double
strike mode on and off) are in fact undocumented commands on the MX-80 Type
III. However, double strike is always used for superscript and subscript
which are documented, and the bug and ESC "G" and ESC "H" are known to be
present in all MX-80 Type III printers.

The "Epson.FX-80" printer definition file is considered the core file and
should work on many Epson compatible printers. The ISO Latin 1 international
characters are printed using ESC "R" international character set sequences,
using character sets 0 (USA) to 8 (Japan). Additionally, some characters are
printed by using backspace to overprint two characters.

The "Epson.JX-80" printer definition file is the same as the "Epson.FX-80"
file, except that it uses colour for non interlaced graphics printouts ie.
120 by 72 DPI or lower. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, interlaced
colour printing would involve an excessively large number of  print head
passes (8, 12, 16 or 24) over the same line on the paper. Secondly, on the
second or subsequent interlace passes, the light ribbon colours (eg. yellow)
would be printing on top of dark colours already on the paper. This causes
contamination of the lighter ribbon colour and seriously reduces usable
ribbon life - unless you are happy with muddy yellows.

The "Epson.FX-85" printer definition file is the same as the "Epson.FX-80"
file, except that it supports Near Letter Quality (NLQ) text printing and
the graphics definitions support leading zero suppression using ESC "$". It
should work on virtually all Epson compatible 9 pin printers that support 
ESC "$" and NLQ printing.

The "Epson.EX-800" printer definition file is the most advanced of the 9 pin
Epson definitions, and should work with all the newer 9 pin printers eg.
Star LC-10, Citizen Swift 9. ISO Latin 1 text characters are obtained by
using ESC "t" 1 and ESC "6" to select the Epson character graphics (called
IBM character set 2 on some printers) instead of italic characters for the
top bit set printer characters. In addition ESC "R" <n> sequences are used
to print some of the characters, using commonly available international
character sets. Graphics leading zero suppression is performed using ESC
"$". Colour is available for the non interlaced graphics resolutions ie. 120
by 72 DPI or lower (for an explanation as to why colour is not enabled for
interlace printouts, see the comments above about the Epson.JX-80 file). You
should not attempt to print in colour unless your printer has a colour
ribbon installed.

The "Epson.LQ-860" printer definition file uses many of the extra features
of the Epson LQ-850 and LQ-860 24 pin printers, and is only likely to work
on an Epson compatible printer if it performs full Epson LQ-850 emulation.
Most of the graphics resolutions are 24 pin dumps. The 360 DPI vertical
resolution graphics dumps are interlaced and as such require the support of
the ESC "+" <n> control sequence to set n/360 inch line pitch. Colour is
available for the non interlaced graphics resolutions ie. 180 by 180 DPI or
lower (for an explanation as to why colour is not enabled for interlace
printouts, see the comments above about the Epson.JX-80 file). ISO Latin 1
text characters are obtained by using ESC "t" 1 and ESC "6" to select the
Epson character graphics set instead of italic characters for the top bit
set printer characters. In addition ESC "R" <n> sequences are used to print
some of the characters, including use of the Legal international character
set (ESC "R" 64) which is not supported on some Epson compatible 24 pin
printers (try the NEC.P6-Plus file instead). You should not attempt to print
in colour unless your printer has a colour ribbon installed.

Note that some very early Epson LQ-850 printers have a different version of
the firmware, which does not support the ESC "+" <n> command and hence the
360 DPI vertical graphics resolutions (180 by 360 and 360 by 360) will not
work. If you find this to be the case on your printer, you should contact
Epson about a firmware upgrade.

You may find that the "NEC.P6-Plus" printer definition file will work for
some Epson compatible 24 pin colour (and monochrome) printers, except that
the 360 DPI vertical resolution graphics modes will not work unless the
printer is NEC compatible.

If you have a true 48 pin Epson compatible printer (eg. the Star SJ-48
inkjet), then try the Canon.BJC-800 printer definition file.

There are some Epson compatible 9 pin printers which define ESC "J" (and ESC
"3") in units of n/144 inch instead of n/216 inch. This will cause
interlaced graphics resolutions to go wrong, but non interlaced resolutions
should work (ESC "J" is not used unless it is necessary). You could try the
Star.DP-510 printer definition file, as this printer uses ESC "3" for
setting the line pitch to n/144 inch. You may then find that text printing
does not work correctly as the Star DP-510 is somewhat non standard in this
area. If this is the case you could use !PrintEdit to create a new printer
definition file, copying the text printing definitions from an appropriate
Epson file and the graphics resolutions from the Star DP-510 file.
