Epson FX-185 User Manual - Page 106

either of these capabilites on and off, as a mode, with an ESCape sequence. Half-Speed Mode The FX can print at the fine rate of 160 characters per second (cps). But it will also print more slowly if you want it to: the Half-Speed Mode prints at 80 cps. The command sequence uses lowercase s plus zero and one as a toggle: LPRINT CHR$(27)"s1" turns Half Speed Mode on, and, as usual, the zero version of the command turns the mode off. If your system can't send lowercase letters, use the longer format: LPRINT CHR$(27)CHR$(115)CHR$(1) to get the same results. The FX uses Half-Speed, as we explained in Chapter 4, to enable extra-dense printing. But why would you want to make the printer work at half its normal speed? The main advantage to Half-Speed printing is a quieter run (e.g., for those late night printing sessions). Immediate-Print Mode (FX-80 only) The FX-80 can move even more slowly-at the speed of your typ- ing. In the Immediate-Print Mode, the print head prints one character at a time, as you send it. The FX-80 also moves the paper up so that you can see the current line and then down to continue printing. This kind of instant feedback can be especially helpful in telecommunications. You turn Immediate Print on with CHR$(27)"i1" or, to avoid the lowercase i, CHR$(27)CHR$(105)"1". But before looking at it, let's review the normal operation of the printer buffer. Enter this program: NEW 20 A$="" : INPUT "TYPE A LETTER A$ 30 IF A$="" THEN 50 40 LPRINT A$;: GOT0 20 50 LPRINT Now type several characters, and after each press the RETURN key. True to form, the printer just stuffs the characters into its buffer while it waits for a carriage-return code. To end this version of the program 89