How to send a simple ASCII stream to printer?

  • Thread starter Thread starter skydiver
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skydiver

I have an old Epson LQ570 printer purchased about 15-20 years ago for my
Commodore 64/128 system. It was set aside for bubble jets with my modern
IBM-compatible computers, but my bubble jet konked out the other day, so
I've connected the LQ570. It works fine except...

How do I make use of the built-in fonts in the LQ570? It has 10 built-in
fonts that can be selected from the printer's front console provided a
simple ASCII stream of data is sent to the printer, allowing the printer to
perform that task. However I can't figure out how to do it. The data outputs
I get from current software select a font and then send a complicated stream
of data to the printer in some kind of "graphics" mode. That prints VERY
VERY SLOWLY on this old dot matrix printer with nylon ribbons, requiring
several slow passes just to print one line. It takes like 5-10 minutes just
to print 1 page! But if I could make use of the printer's built-in fonts, it
would print quickly enough for my purposes. It's mostly used for technical
data printouts, so I don't care much about quality, just so it's legible.

I've tried Notepad, Wordpad, and MS Works, and I don't see any way to send
the proper stream of data to this LQ570 to use the printer's built-in fonts.
How to do it...??
 
I have an old Epson LQ570 printer purchased about 15-20 years ago for my
Commodore 64/128 system. It was set aside for bubble jets with my modern
IBM-compatible computers, but my bubble jet konked out the other day, so
I've connected the LQ570. It works fine except...

How do I make use of the built-in fonts in the LQ570? It has 10 built-in
fonts that can be selected from the printer's front console provided a
simple ASCII stream of data is sent to the printer, allowing the printer to
perform that task. However I can't figure out how to do it. The data outputs
I get from current software select a font and then send a complicated stream
of data to the printer in some kind of "graphics" mode. That prints VERY
VERY SLOWLY on this old dot matrix printer with nylon ribbons, requiring
several slow passes just to print one line. It takes like 5-10 minutes just
to print 1 page! But if I could make use of the printer's built-in fonts, it
would print quickly enough for my purposes. It's mostly used for technical
data printouts, so I don't care much about quality, just so it's legible.

I've tried Notepad, Wordpad, and MS Works, and I don't see any way to send
the proper stream of data to this LQ570 to use the printer's built-in fonts.
How to do it...??
Click to expand...

In Control Panel, add a printer.
Manufacturer: Generic
Printer: Text Only
 
Sped said:
In Control Panel, add a printer.
Manufacturer: Generic
Printer: Text Only
Click to expand...

Thanks. Works fine, for the test page at least!

Next question, if I may...

The printer's built-in features call for sending special codes preceeded by
the ESC character (ASCII=27). I'm wondering how that can be done with
current software. It was easy on my old Commodore 64, just write a little
routine in Basic, but I don't know any programming languages for these
IBM-compatibles. Is that what I need to do, learn a programming language? Or
is there a utility, or a special word processor that will do it?
 
skydiver said:
Thanks. Works fine, for the test page at least!

Next question, if I may...

The printer's built-in features call for sending special codes preceeded
by the ESC character (ASCII=27). I'm wondering how that can be done with
current software. It was easy on my old Commodore 64, just write a little
routine in Basic, but I don't know any programming languages for these
IBM-compatibles. Is that what I need to do, learn a programming language?
Or is there a utility, or a special word processor that will do it?
Click to expand...

Googling a little I found this article which answers my own question:
http://www.frogmorecs.com/arts/using_the_generic_driver.html
It says:
We now need to move on to configuring the driver for you specific printer or
application, start by right clicking on the printer in the printers folder
and selecting "Printer Properties."
Problem:
However the generic/text only printer I just installed is nowhere to be
found. I can't find the printers folder nor a printer! Where? I believe it
should be under Start, Settings, Printers and Faxes, but there's nothing
there except the "Add Printer" option. So where's the new generic/text only
printer located??
 
The printer's built-in features call for sending special codes preceeded by
the ESC character (ASCII=27). I'm wondering how that can be done with
current software. It was easy on my old Commodore 64, just write a little
routine in Basic, but I don't know any programming languages for these
IBM-compatibles. Is that what I need to do, learn a programming language? Or
is there a utility, or a special word processor that will do it?
Click to expand...

The simplest way that comes to mind, assuming you just have a few
sequences of control codes that you'll be using over and over, is to
put the codes in a little 2 or 3 byte binary file, and send them to
the printer from a dos window with the copy command, like this:

copy codes.bin /b prn

I'd make a appropriately sized file in notepad, then use a hex editor
to change the bytes to reflect the control codes you want. Maybe a
batch file or two to run the copy commands.

This is a very '80s approach, but you're using an '80s printer, so it
kind of makes sense.
 
Googling a little I found this article which answers my own question:
http://www.frogmorecs.com/arts/using_the_generic_driver.html
It says:
We now need to move on to configuring the driver for you specific printer or
application, start by right clicking on the printer in the printers folder
and selecting "Printer Properties."
Problem:
However the generic/text only printer I just installed is nowhere to be
found. I can't find the printers folder nor a printer! Where? I believe it
should be under Start, Settings, Printers and Faxes, but there's nothing
there except the "Add Printer" option. So where's the new generic/text only
printer located??
Click to expand...

That's pretty neat. I didn't know you could set up control codes lin
the generic driver like that. That might be the way to go.

Where is your printer? Beats me. Mine is in Printer/Faxes along with
all my other printers. Just make another, and don't lose it this
time.
 
Sped said:
That's pretty neat. I didn't know you could set up control codes lin
the generic driver like that. That might be the way to go.

Where is your printer? Beats me. Mine is in Printer/Faxes along with
all my other printers. Just make another, and don't lose it this
time.
Click to expand...

I tried that, but it's still not to be found. I didn't lose it. The
generic/text only printer is simply not appearing anywhere! I can't make any
more progress til I figure out that mystery. I also tried reinstalling it as
a LQ570, which worked fine before, but even that isn't appearing now. I'm
going to reset my computer to see if that's any help...
---
 
Where is your printer? Beats me. Mine is in Printer/Faxes along with
I tried that, but it's still not to be found. I didn't lose it. The
generic/text only printer is simply not appearing anywhere! I can't make
any more progress til I figure out that mystery. I also tried reinstalling
it as a LQ570, which worked fine before, but even that isn't appearing
now. I'm going to reset my computer to see if that's any help...
Click to expand...

All was OK after resetting my computer. The Start menu simply didn't refresh
itself, so new added printers wouldn't appear. I've noticed the same thing
in the past when adding scheduled tasks, which don't appear immediately nor
update themselves properly in the Start menu. I guess that's a Windows
Explorer bug.

Now I just need to bite the bullet and work out the special code sequences
to send to the printer. It's nice that they can be entered into the generic
driver's properties box in the format <1B> which is the ESC command
(ASCII=27 decimal), etc.

Thanks for your help. I usually go to google first, but just didn't know the
correct terminology, so had to ask a very dumb question on a NG such as
this. The term "generic printer" opened the coffers at google, so all should
now follow naturally... :)
 
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