Someone here has written a program in GWBasic which prints CHR$
graphics codes (to create boxes, make text larger ,etc).  The program
works fine on dot matrix printers but not very well (to put it nicely)
on laser printers.  Is there some sort of code which can be sent to
the laser to make it recognize these graphic codes?

TIA

____
Mike E. Fullerton   | UNIX, Computers, Science, Skepticism

 |

: Someone here has written a program in GWBasic which prints CHR$
: graphics codes (to create boxes, make text larger ,etc).  The program
: works fine on dot matrix printers but not very well (to put it nicely)
: on laser printers.  Is there some sort of code which can be sent to
: the laser to make it recognize these graphic codes?

What kind of laser printer do you want to print to?  There are at least
two popular standards, PCL (LaserJet and compatibles), and postscript.  
Some laser printers will also emulate an Epson dot matrix printer.

Programming a PCL printer to do what you want is not very hard, but you
will need to get some documentation.  I've done it before myself, but I
don't own the manuals (which were HP LaserJet manuals) because I did
this while working for someone else.

Programming a PostScript printer is a much more complicated matter, as it
requires learning a whole new programming language called PostScript.

You also have to make sure that the laser printer in question has the
font you need to print the lines and boxes.  Of course, it is sometimes
true that a dot matrix printer might not have these either, so this is
general printer issue, and not just an issue with laser printers.

Regards,

Carl

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 author of Liberty BASIC, a 1996 PC Magazine Awards Finalist!
 http://world.std.com/~carlg/basic.html