Epson ActionPrinter 4500 User Manual - Page 130

User-defined Characters Data numbers The bits within each byte have values of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and 128. In the vertical column of dots, the bits are arranged so that the most significant bit (with a value of 128) is at the top of the column and the least significant bit (with a value of 1) is at the bottom. The next illustration shows how to use this method to calculate the data numbers for the character in this example. On the left side of the figure, the data numbers are calculated for the middle column. The value of each byte is calculated by adding the values of the rows in which dots appear. The right side of the figure shows the whole character with the three data numbers for each column indicated at the bottom. This manual uses decimal numbers because the program examples are written in BASIC and everyone is familiar with decimals. The data you send to your printer, however, must be in the form (binary, decimal, or hexadecimal) that you can use with your programming language. Software and Graphics 4-23