🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2424@ski.UUCP> dr@unix.UUCP (David Robins) writes:
}In article <> tedj@hpcilzb.HP.COM (Ted Johnson) writes:
}>
}>Does the Print Quality button on the ImageWriter II really do anything?
}>. . . .  Do these 3 settings only make a difference when you are
}>using the ImageWriter II's "native" font (i.e., when you choose
}>Draft from the Draft/Good/Best dialog?
}
}The Quality button is for the built-in font selection only. . . .
}I am told that you can use the Imagewriter built-in fonts by setting
}up the Mac to send in Draft mode, which apparently sends ASCII
}straight to the printer.  You can then select the desired print
}quality at the printer.  
}
}BTW: The Imagewriter fonts can be also accessed by escape codes,
}rather than the front panel switch.  See the Technical Reference Manual.

There is no perfect answer to this.

Draft mode in the Imagewriter driver uses whatever mode is selected on
the printer front panel, BUT the text is spaced out to simulate the
page layout that Faster or Best mode would give.

Programs and DAs which talk directly to the Imagewriter (e.g.
MockPrint or VersaTerm [in RS-232 print mode]) reset the printer when
they start up, wiping out the setting you chose before you began
printing.  You can deselect the printer just after it does its little
startup jig, change the setting to high quality, and reselect it (I
just tried it), but you have to be fast to get all the lines in the
mode you want.

One exception is the DA miniWRITER (versions 3 and following) which
allows you to select NLQ mode for printing.  It then sends the
escape sequence to the printer to set that mode.

If you can manage to place the escape sequence at the front of your
text and send that text directly to the ImageWriter using one of these
DAs, you should get what you are looking for.

I just looked it up:
	Quality		esc sequence	DECIMAL ASCII codes

	Draft		<ESC> a 1	27 97 49
	Standard	<ESC> a 0	27 97 48
	NLQ		<ESC> a 2	27 97 50

There. More than you ever wanted to know.

Disclaimer: see fine print.

-- 
UUCP: {harvard, husc6, etc.}!bbn!levin
ARPA: levin@bbn.com