Epson DFX-8000 User Manual - Page 161

User-defined Characters Designing your characters Userdeked characters are like dot graphics because you send theprinter pm&e instructions on where you want each dot printed. In fact, planning a user-defined character is like planniqg a small dot graphics pattern. In this mode, you treat the printer as if it had a single column of nine pins. Design grids To design a draft character you use a grid that has nine rows and eleven columns as shown below. The following figure shows three of these grids. Most characters do not use the two rows below the heavy line. Those rows are only for characters with descenders, like y and g. Also, even though you can use up to 11 columns, it is best to leave the last two blank for the space between characters. 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 123456789 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1L i i i i I 123456789 128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1 123456789 The grid in the middle shows the design. You can use up to eight pins of your printer's print head in a single user-defined character. The design above uses the top eight pins, but you can also use the bottom eight by using the grid on the right as explained later in this section. . Software and Graphics 4-23