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1993-01-23
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THIS SOFTWARE IS FREEWARE: PLEASE FEEL FREE TO DISTRIBUTE, PLEASE SEND
NO MONEY, BUT PLEASE INCLUDE ALL FILES WHEN DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE.
ALSO, PLEASE SEND ANY SIGNIFICANTLY MODIFIED VERSIONS TO THE e-mail
ADDRESS BELOW.
PSET 1.0
23 Jan 1993
Andrew Marchant-Shapiro
marchana@gar.union.edu
marchana@union.bitnet
A utility for font selection in the Hewlett-Packard DeskJet series printers.
REQUIREMENTS: 4DOS 4.00+
A Deskjet series printer
FILES: action0.........main menu
actionp.........font menu
down............envelope margins
pset.btm........main program
pset.cmd........commands to help set up MicroEMACS
for editing envelope addresses.
pset.doc........this file
I. NOTE:
If you don't have 4DOS installed, give up. This program relies heavily
on 4DOS, the best thing you can do for DOS. So zap this file right now
and give up if you don't have it. Better yet, install 4DOS, fall in
love with it (it takes less than 5 minutes), and register it (it takes
less than $70). THEN install this program. If you're a registered 4DOS
user, read on...
II. INTRODUCTION:
PSET is a little utility I put together to make it easier to use my HP
DeskJet 500 printer. When I bought it a few months ago, I thought that
it would be nice to finally have access to more than two fonts (my old
printer was a remarkably tough Okidata '92), but I soon found that there
was no good software available to allow me to SELECT fonts in the
printer.
So, having recently become a registered user of 4DOS, I did what any
insane person would do -- I wrote a font selector. While I was at it, I
put in a few useful features -- the ability to set margins, print
envelopes, reset the printer to my desired defaults, and turn text
scaling on. The most commonly used functions appear in a 4DOS select
window when you type PSET at the prompt (NOTE: PSET should be an alias
that starts PSET.BTM from its own directory. This is because PSET.BTM
uses SETLOCAL to locate its various files).
III. THE PSET OPENING MENU:
Below is what you'll see when you type PSET. Descriptions of functions
follow:
┌──PSET───┐
│Reset │
│Fonts │
│Envelope │
│Margin │
│Scaling │
└─────────┘
Position the cursor bar to select from among these functions:
Reset
Reset allows you to send a string out to the printer to set it the way
you like it. As distributed, the reset string sets the printer up with
no margin, text scaling off, perforation skip on (for a total of 60
lines per page), clears the buffer, and selects the 10 point/12 cpi
Prestige Elite font (from the 22706B cartridge). You can easily edit
this string to provide your choice of defaults. After sending the reset
string, PSET prints a message to the effect that the printer has been
reset, and then exits.
Fonts
Fonts takes you to the FONTS menu, described in more detail below.
Envelope
Envelope sets the printer for envelope printing (again, in Prestige
Elite type) and asks you to load an envelope (this cannot be done
through HP-PCL, as far as I know). It prints a file of carriage returns
(DOWN) to put a reasonable margin on the envelope. It then starts an
editor -- the distributed version is set up to work with MicroEMACS --
writing directly to the printer. If you use another editor, make the
appropriate changes, or use an old (i.e., small) version of VDE or
something. You enter the address in the editor, then save and exit. If
your editor can write directly to the printer, then you're all set. If
it can't, you'll have to add the necessary lines to have it write to a
file and then copy that file out to the printer. Once the address is
printed, PSET resets the printer and takes you back to the main menu.
Margin
Margin will simply ask you for a number and set the margin to that
number of characters. Note that it will use whatever character width is
in effect AT THE TIME THAT YOU MAKE THIS SELECTION. So, if you have a
10 cpi font selected and choose a margin of 10, and then select a 24 cpi
font, the margin will remain 10x10cpi=1 inch wide. After setting the
margin, you are returned to the main menu.
Scaling
One problematic feature of the DJ is its inability to print on the
bottom of the page, and its automatic 1/2-inch top margin. These
combine to limit you to 60 lines per page, unless you toggle the
perforation skip and text scaling features, either by switches in the
printer or through software. Perf Skip can be toggled to give you 63
lines per page, by turning off the top margin. Text Scale squeezes the
text so that 63 lines can fit on a normal DJ page. This option combines
the two functions so that you can get 66 lines per page, even leaving a
1/2-inch bottom margin. After selecting this option, you are returned
to the main menu.
Escape
Pressing the escape key at the main menu allows you to exit without
making any changes.
IV. THE PSET FONTS MENU:
┌STYLE─────────CPI┐
│─────portrait────│
│Prestige Elite 12│
│Prestige Elite 24│
│Letter Gothic 12│
│Letter Gothic 24│
│Courier 5│
│Courier 10│
│Courier 17│
│Courier 20│
│CG Times PS│
│────landscape────│
│Courier 10l│
│Courier 17l│
│Courier 20l│
└ ^v, <─┘ or Esc ─┘
The Fonts menu is, again, a simple-minded thing. Just choose the
particular font you want, and press return. PSET will print a message
telling you what you selected, and take you back to the main menu. From
there, you can make more changes or just ESCape. If you ESCape from
the font menu, PSET will tell you that you haven't changed a font, but
won't try to stop you. Selecting the portrait or landscape bars has no
effect -- they're just there to make it clear which fonts are which.
By the way, these are NOT all the fonts that are available on a DJ500
with a Prestige Math cartridge -- just the ones that I thought I would
find most useful. It should be simple enought to tailor this list to
what you have in your printer. If necessary, you can even scroll the
menu up and down (4DOS's select function allows for this).
V. MAKING PSET WORK FOR YOU:
You'll have to do some things if you aren't using pretty much the same
setup I have, but they're minor.
FIRST: There is a CD command in PSET.BTM, the third line. Right now,
it goes to \bin\pset. Change it to point to the directory into which
you place the files in this archive.
SECOND: Make sure that you either edit PSET.BTM to replace the EMACS...
command line, or make sure you have an editor called EMACS in your path
that can handle writing directly to the printer (in case you're using
MicroEMACS 3.11, which I recommend you do, I've included a short set of
commands (@PSET.CMD) to make things easier)).
THIRD: Edit the various strings in PSET.BTM and ACTIONP (the font
menu) to match your printer setup. Pay particular attention to the
reset string -- it should match either your printer defaults or any
defaults that you setup at boot time (through your AUTOEXEC.BAT file).
VI. EXCUSES:
PSET contains some really, really, incredibly sloppy code. I know. I
haven't bothered to clean it up because it WORKS, as it is, and it has
grown a little at a time, in odd ways, ever since I first put it
together. If I have time, someday, I'd like to make the code pretty,
and perhaps incorporate the printer control strings into the menu file
(it would make things nicely modular). But I'm trying to finish a
social science dissertation, so don't expect PSET 2.0 for a long time,
maybe never.
VII. WARNING:
When setting up PSET for your DJ500, be very careful about the order in
which you place commands. Just like the LaserJet, the DJ is finicky
about syntax, and the wrong order can make it ignore one or more
commands very easily, resulting in your getting output that you didn't
want. HP-PCL has a very precise, if arcane, syntax -- check out your
printer manual. It presents the escape codes in the order in which they
must be sent to be properly recognized.
VIII. WARRANTY:
Absolutely None. Nothing express or implied. This is freeware, and it
is up to you to decide whether or not you want to risk using it. Don't
call me. Etc. Enough said?