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Commodore MPS 1200 User`s manual

1. Arabic LQ With this font you can write Arabic text with geoWrite This is a bit difficult as Arabic script is written from right to left While there is a program available for German GEOS which reverses input accordingly we re not aware of such a program for U S versions 43 Section 6 Modifying and Creating LQ Fonts About the LQ Fonts By using the font utilities supplied with Perfect Print you can easily revise adapt or create LQ fonts to suit your needs You can for instance erase unwanted point sizes create required sizes copy sizes from one font to another or change normal fonts to LQ fonts You can also create a completely new LQ font by using a font editor one has been supplied This is however very difficult and requires much time Be sure to mark such fonts using FontDistance otherwise the Print System will treat them as standard GEOS fonts It is extremely important that at least one but not more than seven visible point sizes be contained within a font If not geoWrite will crash and your current document page may be lost FontHide allows you to hide additional point sizes from geoWrite to avoid this Special care should be given when modifying fonts Save often to your work disk Working on fonts VLIR files under GEOS the system tends to be rather error prone geoFont especially tends to crash and if you are using a ram disk your fonts may be lost GEOS sometimes produces additional pseudo p
2. User s Manual e lL rng a a cerne um 29999999 CM Creative Micro Designs Inc User s Manual Creative Micro Designs Inc P O Box 646 East Longmeadow MA 01028 413 525 0023 Copyright Notice Copyright O 1991 by Thilo Herrmann and Creative Micro Designs Inc First Edition First printing December 1991 All rights connected to this program GEOS LQ Print System HQ printer drivers LQ fonts and font utilities are reserved by Thilo Herrmann The rights to the manual are reserved by Creative Micro Designs Inc and Thilo Herrmann All programs and documentation included in this package are copyrighted by Creative Micro Designs Inc and Thilo Herrmann and are protected by United States and International copyright laws No part of this program or the manual may be copied in any manner without the written permission of Thilo Herrmann and Creative Micro Designs Inc The only exception is for back up copies for the user s own use Neither CMD nor Thilo Herrmann can be held legally responsible for errors in either programs or manual or damages resulting from their use GEOS LQ is distributed in the USA and Canada exclusively by Creative Micro Designs Inc P O Box 646 East Longmeadow MA 01028 USA and in Europe by Thilo Herrmann Croissant Rust Str 7 D W 8000 Muenchen 60 Germany RAMLink and HD Series are trademarks of Creative Micro Designs Inc RAMDrive is a trademark of Performance
3. oooocccconcoonccnanncccnonanecnnnonoss 26 Problems which May occur eeessesssoosesoeoseseesesesossseceesesoseoeee 26 Optional Parameter Files oomomcccoooonorcnanccnonaccnnonaconaconananonnos 26 Using the GEOS LQ Print System scccssssseessssecececeessceeensecsees 26 The Documents to be Printed cccccccccccccsrcrrrrrcrscecesesscesees 27 Starting the Print System oooooconosonnnnocononnonnncnnnncccnanaconocananenaconeso 27 The Print Menu ococcocnonoccnonncnccncnconocaconanonocorononoconononarcancanonos 27 From Page TO Page oooccccncconccnononcnnoccnnncononnncnnaccnonncconaaconeceno 28 Single Sheets Copies ooocccooocccononccnnonccnonoocnnnaccccnnaconocacanononos 28 24 pin Mode ccccccccccncccnononicnnnnononennnnccnnnnncnccnnonecccnononiccananesos 28 Print density X and Y o concconoooonaccccnocacanannccananonaconnccnnnnannos 28 Interpolation ccccccsssscccccccessssccccesceeeccessssseseseneneesesesceoeres 29 geoWrite Format Gradual Sizing occcooooccccnnorcnnanccccoonanonocnnnnonos 29 Saving the Print Parameters sccccssscecssssscessscceescseecssseeees 29 PYINt ccccccccsccsccccesccsceccsccsssscsccescccccsccesessescsccescesensceeoeess 30 The End Menu sccccsscsrsscsscnsccsscccccccccccccseccecsccecasceseoesoeesons 30 Entering the Print System from geo Write ccssseeecsesscecrcsseeceeceees 31 Quality Speed and Se
4. see 9 pin printers Most so called Epson compatible 24 pin printers are in reality NEC compatible Use therefore primarily the LQA NEC 24 adaptation and fall back to LQA Epson Q only if needed Do not use the LQA NEW Epson Q as it only works with the very newest Epson and Epson compatible printers The SL 80VC is a specially constructed Seikosha printer which has a 24 pin print head but otherwise behaves like a 9 pin printer 24 pin Printers from Epson original Epson printers The Epson printers present some problems due to the lack of a software command in their operating system All old Epson 24 pin printers and all LQ 400 models must use the LQA Epson Q adaptation file The resolution on these models will only reach 360 180 dpi 25 Section 4 If you are the fortunate owner of an LQ 550 or a new LQ 850 860 or 1050 2550 you can use the LQA NEW Epson Q file This adaptation functions only with these newer Epson printers The LQA Epson Q will also work with all these printers 24 pin Printers IBM compatible A few 24 pin printers are IBM compatible usually very old 24 pin printers Use the LQA IBM 24 adaptation file in these cases Many new 24 pin printers can be switched to IBM mode This will however normally bring disadvantages to the C 64 128 user Problems which may occur If the printout is horizontally ragged make sure that the condensed print mode on your printer is switched off If an e
5. It is not necessary to thoroughly read through this section If you do not wish to be burdened with a lot of technical details and would rather get on with printing skip ahead to Installing a Printer Driver You can read this section later if you want to learn more about the printer drivers The experienced user may want to read on in order to choose the exact printer driver which best suits his needs The printer drivers on the GEOS HQ Printer Drivers disk are arranged in a specific order to allow you to find a suitable driver more easily That is also why the drivers have been assigned uniform names which are described in more detail below 11 Section 3 Type of Printer Driver The driver names begin with the abbreviation HQ MG or Simple HQ stands for high quality which indicates that the driver works with the interpolation procedure We recommend installing this kind of driver as it produces the best printout MG stands for mega and indicates a high resolution printout which is not interpolated and tends to be a bit crude In some cases this can be useful Simple stands for just that These drivers are only available for 9 pin printers and the printout is the standard low resolution They are the fastest however sailing over a line just one time and are useful whenever a fast printout is needed Number of Pins The number of pins which the driver supports directly follows the driver type Use only 9 pin d
6. Roma 24 will be used and slightly enlarged This slight enlargement and reduction can be switched off using the Gradual Sizing box Now the font size will be changed in whole number factors The results are a slightly improved print quality but also changed font size Therefore use caution as the printout can be larger or smaller Watch the space between tabs and the end of the page The Print System may even re format the text which might lead to awkward spacing between words This happens because the system is trying to format the text the same way geoWrite formats text which is extremely difficult when using whole number factors By switching off the geoWrite Format this problem is alleviated but the words printed on the paper generally won t be in the same lines as those on the screen Saving the Print Parameters By clicking on the save icon all print parameters will be saved to the disk and automatically read the next time you use the Print System If you click once on this icon you may delete any connection adaptation or parameter files stored on your disk because the whole configuration of the system is saved This allows you to create your own versions of GeosLQ and to save space on your disk Additionally the Print System will come up faster 29 Section 4 The parameters are saved directly to the GeosLQ file If you need to have the default parameter settings again you must copy the GeosLQ file from the distribu
7. before you choose StartLQ from the geos menu If you fail to update StartLQ will refuse to run and remind you to to update first When launched from geoWrite 1 3 or 1 2 StartLQ cannot determine if a document has been updated Therefore a warning message is displayed which allows cancellation This also happens if StartLQ is mistakenly chosen from another application or from the deskTop Sometimes a document is loaded from the wrong drive This occurs when StartLQ cannot determine the disk drive and the same document is on two separate drives In some rare cases the document s name cannot be extracted from geoWrite If the Print System cannot be found on any drive you will automatically be returned to the deskTop On the back side of the system disk you will find another version of StartLQ called LoadLQ This version does just about the same thing as StartLQ but differs in that it always takes you to the file selection window of the Print System instead of to the print parameter menu An alternative possibility to start the Print System is the printer driver DriveLQ on the back side of the system disk This driver is installed like an ordinary printer driver copy it onto your work disk and install it with the DeskTop Instead of driving a printer it automatically launches the Print System If you have it installed and choose file print in geoWrite you will be prompted with the usual dialog box Just ign
8. fonts These fonts are primarily designed with vertical horizontal and diagonal lines which are more easily interpolated by the HQ drivers The quality attained with these fonts is very close to that of the GEOS LQ Print System Fonts and graphics with curves and slightly slanted lines do not interpolate as well and this can be seen in the printout HQ fonts are located on the back side of the driver disk and give optimum results when used with the HQ drivers 17 Section 4 The GEOS LQ Print System About the GEOS LQ Print System The GEOS LQ Print System expands geoWrite s printing capabilities and allows adjustment of the print quality The system is usually started from within geoWrite by first clicking update in the file menu and then StartLQ in the geos menu Remember that only text which has been formatted with an LQ font will be printed out in the maximum quality You ll need therefore at least one LQ font on your work disk Simplified Installation If you want to get right into producing better printouts follow the steps in this topic Should you have trouble with the installation refer to the topics Making a Work Disk and Printer Adaptation After you have installed the system successfully see the topic Using the GEOS LQ Print System for additional information on system usage Perfect Prints GEOS LQ Print System requires much more disk space than an HQ driver We recommend that you format a new work disk fo
9. this method of connection is not as desirable but may be necessary if your printer has only a Commodore serial port connection For faster output the better method of connecting the printer to the computer is to use a direct parallel connection from the user port to the printer s centronics port The transmission is much faster especially when using 24 pin printers for graphic printouts as is the case with the GEOS LQ Print System and the HQ interpolation drivers The parallel connection does have a disadvantage it only works with about 98 of the available printers as the user port doesn t always deliver the necessary signal power For more on parallel connections see Section 7 Some printers are connected to the computer via an RS 232 serial port connection to the user port Perfect Print does not currently support this type of printer connection Section 2 Printer Adjustments The DIP switches on some serial connected printers may need to be switched to an Epson IBM or ASCII mode before use If not they may print using an inferior Commodore mode the HQ drivers and the GEOS LQ Print System do not support the use of the Commodore printing modes Please refer to the section of your printer manual which deals with DIP switch settings before using Perfect Print When using the HQ drivers and the GEOS LQ Print System the so called Auto Linefeed is meaningless as the program switches it off The only known exception to
10. LQA Oldmechanic No form feed Everything prints on the same line You re probably using a printer driver or an adaptation for the newest Epson 24 pin printers which won t work on your printer So don t use EpN drivers new Epson use Eps or NEC instead With the Print System use the adaptation file LQA Epson Q or LQA NEC 24 instead of the LQA NEW Epson Q file Minimal horizontal movement of the print line Your printer is probably printing bi directional Turn this option off using the DIP switches The end of the page is not on the perforation Using the DIP switches set the printer to 11 inch page length In the Print System you may also copy the parameter file LQP 11 inch onto your work disk Headers and footers of the first page are not printed You ve chosen the title page option in geoWrite The Print System will not print the headers or footers in the first page if this is the case Go back to geoWrite and turn this option off 56 Problems and Solutions Slow printing speed There are many causes for this It could be normal as high density printouts do take time We highly recommend you connect your printer to the computer via the parallel user port If your printer has a buffer of under 4 Kbytes or no buffer at all GEOS LQ is required to wait Different fonts and font styles especially Outline in a document also slow down the system Your document does not appear in the Print System
11. No allows for a balanced printout especially if the Gradual sizing option is chosen in the print menu No Fonts on the document disk Fonts are always loaded from the same disk from which GeosLQ was loaded This is normally the way the Print System operates the exception being if yes is the answer The system will then search for the fonts on the document disk 64 Dummy value for the compatibility with older GEOS LQ Versions 0 Ditto These two values above are ignored by the current system 1 2 Underlining relative to base line This value determines the vertical position of the underlining At 1 2 the underlining is slightly under the letters At 1 0 directly under the letters and at 0 above Pages Paper Page Paper 1 Number of copies 1 999 From page to page No Single sheet mode These are the defaults for the menu options in the print menu 2 0 Line pitch in GEOS pixels geoWrite uses an additional line pitch of 2 pixels BSW 9 point font is therefore 11 pixels high With the Print System that value can be regulated 36 The GEOS LQ Print System 1 5 Distance in inches between footer and edge of paper This distance can be made larger or smaller by inserting an inch value Yes Perform form feed If the Print System is to perform a formfeed after every page a yes is required here A no will cause the pages to print without a formfeed No Use GEOS LQ s soft
12. S1 S4 SS S7 and GC The S stands for serial connection and is followed by the secondary address used by the driver This is very important with serially connected printers as a wrong secondary address leads to a useless printout This is the reason why many of the drivers contained on the GEOS System disks do not work with some serially connected printers The Perfect Print HQ drivers solve this problem by offering printer drivers for all commonly used secondary addresses The next section discusses which secondary addresses to use with the various printers and or interfaces All serial drivers use the device number four If your printer is set for device number 5 please switch it to 4 to use it with any of the drivers included with Perfect Print If you have a specific need for serial drivers which use device number 5 contact CMD Technical Support The abbreviation GC indicates a driver which has been written to use a parallel printer directly connected to the user port of your computer These drivers are the fastest due to the higher transfer rate of data between your computer and printer Historically GC stands for geoCable which was produced by Berkeley Softworks but many other cables have been produced by others which are compatible For more information about parallel cables and connections see Section 7 Section 3 Installing a Printer Driver Installing a printer driver is very easy the most difficult part
13. There are probably too many parameters in this line Check for extras End of File expected You no doubt have included one parameter line too many 59 Appendix B Note The following errors can show up during normal program operation Disk error During disk access an error has occurred The file in which the error occurred will be shown as well as an error number The error numbers together with their meaning are listed below Unlisted numbers suggest either structural mechanical or magnetic damage to the disk 0 Meaningless 3 1 Not enough space on the disk 4 Too many files on the disk 5 File not found 13 Device not present 38 Disk is write protected File not found The selected file can not be found This error occurs when no file is chosen from the file selection box Too many fonts on disk Reduce the number of fonts on the disk The Print System is only able to cope with a certain number of fonts and point sizes geoWrite can only manage seven external fonts at a time anyhow Error while reading fonts A disk error has occurred while reading a font The error number is described under Disk errors Font too large The font is larger than 14 500 bytes Printer inaccessible The serial connected printer is either not turned on or is disconnected Check your switches and cables Line buffer overflow This error may occur when using extremely small fonts and high print resolution Reduce the resol
14. be produced You may also use standard GEOS fonts but these will be interpolated by the Print System during the printing process The supplied font utilities will allow you to create your own LQ fonts but this can be difficult and very time consuming We do not recommend using the space bar to tidy up the lines of your document but rather the formatting functions justification tabulation etc especially numerical tabulations which may also be used as right aligned tabs Remember to switch to left justified if you want to use tabs If you need horizontal separation lines use those in BSW 9 as this font is transferred to the printer without any changes Starting the Print System The Print System can be started either directly from a geoWrite document by clicking on StartLQ in the geos menu see Section 4 topic Entering the Print System from geoWrite or from the deskTop If you click print in the file menu within a document or drag the ghost file over the printer driver on the deskTop the Print System will not be used and the document will be printed out in the quality of the currently installed printer driver From the deskTop you can activate the Print System by double clicking the LQ icon The program then reads the connection file the printer adaptation file and the parameter file if one is present If the program encounters an error an error message will be displayed and you will be returned to the deskTop Appe
15. communicate to the printer using basic commands Both programs only run in 64 mode More information is contained in the READ ME file on the back side of the program disk it s a BASIC program 53 Section 7 Purchasing a Parallel Cable CMD Technical Support can provide you with information on where to purchase a parallel cable we have not printed such information in this manual in case sources change If you are thinking of purchasing your cable elsewhere make sure the connections listed later in this section are identical with the cable you wish to purchase When inserting the cable into the user port make sure the computer is turned off and the user port plug in card is inserted right side up Otherwise the user port can be damaged Making Your Own Parallel Cable Those of you with experience in soldering can easily make your own parallel cable Be sure to follow the connection directions below A false connection will destroy chips in the computer or printer You will need the following parts a C 64 user port plug a centronics plug a not too long cable up to 6 ft with at least 11 wires preferably shielded cable though we have seen ribbon cable used a soldering iron and solder The connection must look like this Make sure you mark the top side of the user port plug The user port assignments can be found in the back of you computer manual You can also connect pin 14 auto linefeed and 31 printer res
16. it slows down the system drastically Its much better to connect the computer to a centronics printer with a cable from the user port This type of cable is not very commonly available in the U S as it is in Europe but we at CMD are aware of some sources and can supply you with this information at your request If you have a bit of experience in soldering you can probably make your own In any case make sure the interface is removed before using your computer If not serious damage to the printer computer and or interface could occur The user port was not intended to serve as a printer connection and can in rare cases cause some problems This may often be solved by using the file LQConnect GCSlow for the Print System If this does not work check your cable and user port They may be defective The only other alternative is to hook up the printer with the serial connection The one disadvantage to having your printer parallel connected is that this connection is not supported by the operating system of the Ds tud Some programs however do support the parallel connection If you wish to print using a parallel connection from within basic programs then use the program INTERFACE located on the back side of the LQ program disk It is loaded with LOAD INTER 8 1 then type NEW and started with SYS51000 You can also find a smaller version on the disk which is loaded with LOAD CEN 8 1 and started with SYS828 It is then possible to
17. masked by increasing the print density through multiple passes This approach however tends to make the printout darker 2 Preliminary Information and somewhat fuzzy or less defined Perfect Print offers some better solutions The first improvement is to swap the normal GEOS printer driver with an interpolation driver as found on Perfect Print LQ s HQ Printer Driver Disk This driver doesn t just deliver the print data from the computer to the printer but examines the data to create output in an entirely different way The inferior GEOS resolution is interpolated changed into a higher resolution printout by intelligently inserting extra dots to provide suitable output This is not however the highest quality available from the system Higher print quality is attained when the GEOS LQ Print System is used in conjunction with geoWrite documents and only geoWrite documents are handled by this system The Print System replaces the inferior on screen fonts during printout with high resolution LQ fonts This way the maximum print quality is attained just as the font designer intended because this method does not use interpolation through which the fonts could become enlarged or distorted On a 9 pin printer with font sizes up to 15 points quality is reached which exceeds that of all other systems An even better quality is reached on a 24 pin printer using fonts up to 10 points Slight losses in the quality may be visible when using lar
18. may occur eccsccsosccessccscccsccecscsccescscoscescees 16 Installing the DIVER aiii tela soesvonsinesesevaceeseaaens 17 HO FOND ii cacao 17 Table of Contents Section 4 The GEOS LQ Print System About the GEOS LQ Print SySteM ooooccccncccnocicnonoconicnccnonicoaserecccno 19 Simplified InstallatiON uuoooooorocconocononoroncononononaconnncacacnccncanacnansos 19 9 pin Printers cecccsssscccenscesscereceeesssssseesaesscesenecsesscoseneeees 20 24 pin PrinterS ooccoononoonenononeneninnnnononcnnonanconconanonaccnannnncncnccononos 20 Making a Work Disk o ooooccnccocncononcnonoccncnnconannonncnonacccnnacanacocnnnanoso 21 Printer Adaptation ooooccononocccnccnnocnnncnnnoccnocnncnccnnrenaconancnonaninacosos 22 Connection File Selection cccccccccccssscssccsccsescessescceeseessseses 22 Which Adaptation for Which Printer Ty6 cscssssssseserescseeeees 24 9 pin printers Epson compatible oooomoonoooonnccononoanoncananoononoos 24 9 pin printers IBM Compatible cccccssssssessscseercescceeeeecsesers 24 9 pin Printers old Star printers SG and Others ssscscssseeesees 25 Other 9 8 7 pin PrintefS cccscccsccccreresrssersssssssscssssscoes 25 24 pin Printers NEC compatible oooococconooccncncccconanonoacccnonoos 25 24 pin Printers from Epson original Epson printers 25 24 pin Printers IBM compatible
19. of your receipt or b if Creative Micro Designs Inc is unable to deliver a replacement diskette s which is free of defects in materials or workmanship you may return the remainder of the package complete and in original condition for a refund of the original purchase price less shipping Furthermore Creative Micro Designs Inc may elect to refund to you the original purchase price less shipping if the software proves incompatible with your particular hardware as long as the complete package is returned to Creative Micro Designs Inc within thirty 30 days of receipt by you as evidenced by a copy of your receipt and as long as such return has been authorized by an official representative of Creative Micro Designs Inc Creative Micro Designs Inc retains the right to determine the existence of such incompatibilities and also retains the right to grant such refunds at it s own discretion Creative Micro Designs Inc also retains the right to adjust refund amounts to cover costs of damaged goods processing re packaging and re stocking of the returned merchandise All returns must be clearly marked with a Return Authorization Number which may only be obtained by calling Creative Micro Designs Inc and speaking directly with an officially appointed representative IN NO EVENT WILL CREATIVE MICRO DESIGNS INC BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS LOST SAVINGS OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARIS
20. space you could use an alternative user interface such as gateWay or QwikTop You can also create room on your disks by deleting some of the point sizes of the LQ fonts see Section 6 topic About the Font Utilities 21 Section 4 Printer Adaptation Most all printing programs have problems with printer adaptation and the GEOS LQ Print System is no exception This is mostly due to the diversity of available printers and their connection possibilities Most of the newer printers present no problems especially newer 24 pin printers If you ve already successfully installed an HQ driver you probably won t have much difficulty with the GEOS LQ Print System The Print System should not be confused with the printer drivers as it works completely independent from them channeling data directly to the printer It doesn t really matter which GEOS or HQ printer driver is installed The only purpose they serve is that of determining the page length in geoWrite This is the only practical reason to install a printer driver but it isn t really a necessity The GEOS LQ Print System uses it s own exclusive printer adaptations which are found on the program disk If you ve put together a work disk as described above you are still missing a printer adaptation and a connection file for the Print System The printer adaptation gives the system information conceming the printer being used The connection file determines how the printer is connected to
21. to use It will first ask for the source fonts and their point sizes After both are loaded and put together they can then be saved to the destination font The graphic garbage on the screen when the second font part is loading is normal During the joining of the two font parts you may run into the error message Font too large This will occur if the first font part is larger than 12000 bytes or the second larger than 8000 bytes With FontAjust you can eliminate the spaces between letters thus reducing the number of bytes If you re working with mega fonts which contain 6 point sizes you will have to make 5 passes with FontSplice Try to make the two halves during the last pass the same byte size Otherwise you may receive the above mentioned error message FontHide FontHide serves one purpose it hides single point sizes from geoWrite which can only recognize seven point sizes thus preventing a system crash We recommend only hiding the larger LQ point sizes The use of this 49 Section 6 program is very simple Simply follow the instructions in the windows The Print System will recognize and use these hidden point sizes There isn t a program to restore the hidden point sizes If this should be necessary simple copy the point size back to itself using FontMove FontDistance This program serves two purposes it marks a font as an LQ font making it acceptable for the Print System and it adjusts the distan
22. use the LQConnect GC file If this does not work then try LQConnect GCSlow The number following the S in the serial connection files is the secondary address If you ve successfully installed one of the HQ printer drivers then use one of the connection files which uses the same S number You may also check the following table to see which file is the correct one Pay special attention to the interface and or printer type Choose and then copy the fitting file to your work disk If you re trying out several files remember that the program will use the first of these files it finds on your work disk Most serially interfaced printers use the secondary address number five These printers will not normally need any connection file as the Print System is programmed to use this secondary address Printers with a regular serial interface will not generally require an LQConnect file LOConnect S4 MPS 1230 LQConnect S7 Epson printers with Epson Interface as well as printers with built in serial interfaces such as Star printers and Seikosha VC model printers i e SP 1200VC SL 80VC LQConnect S5 All Xetec and Cardco Supra interfaces As mentioned most interfaces use 5 as a secondary address for Transparent mode but that number does vary Consult your interface manual If your printer uses a different device number than four simply open the LQConnect file under geoWrite and make the change in the document all configuration
23. 0 dpi at X 6 and Y 2 A faster printout can be had with a density of X 5 and Y 1 An even faster printout can be produced with X 4 Y 1 but here again the print quality suffers This can be rectified with the parameter file LQP 24 ideal With this file the font point sizes 9 12 and 18 do not undergo a size adaptation A small border on both sides results and the page is taller If the GEOS printer driver 24ideal geoWrite is installed in the normal way select printer in the geos menu geoWrite will be able to use the full page length Transferring Existing Documents If your existing documents were written using either University Roma or California the Print System will automatically convert these to their equivalent LQ fonts once the documents are copied to your work disk Barrows LQ replaces LW Barrows But the text will be re formatted by geoWrite and the Print System Be sure to check your document before printing to make sure the text is properly positioned 32 The GEOS LQ Print System The Configuration Files You can influence the way the Print System EE by itering the configuration files of which there are three different types Two of them have already been mentioned the connection file LQConnect and the printer adaptation file LQA The third configuration file is called the parameter file LQP All of the configuration files are simple geoWrite documents which can be opened and modifi
24. 1 Section 5 Installing LQ Fonts on your Work Disk You only need copy the LQ fonts on to your work disk The Print System expects the fonts to be on the same disk drive as the GeosLQ file and geoWrite If you use LQP FontDisk or if you replace no with yes in your currently installed parameter file as an answer to the question Fonts on the text disk see Section 4 topic The Configuration Files subtopic The Structure of the Parameter File the system searches the fonts on the document disk It can be helpful to have several work disks each equipped with it s own LQ fonts for a special purpose letters or greeting cards and so on You can also copy a complete disk and then modify it to suit you current needs Work is also made much easier if you own an REU or one of CMD s mass storage devices HD Series hard drives RAMLink or RAMDrive Information Concerning the LQ Fonts The fonts included in GEOS LQ were initially created for the German market but most have been converted The Gothic LQ font however still contains some German letters and characters which replace some seldom used characters on the U S keyboard This applies to the following characters LN J l Paragraph Font The font Paragraph is really not a font at all It allows small spaces to be placed between paragraphs or under titles To use this font set the cursor at the beginning of the paragraph Chose the Paragraph font and
25. A 01028 Limited Warranty and Return Policy LIMITED WARRANTY This software is provided as is without warranty of any kind either expressed or implied including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose The entire risk as to the quality and performance of the software is with you Should the software prove defective you and not Creative Micro Designs Inc or an authorized dealer assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing repair or correction Some states do not allow the exclusion of implied warranties so the above exclusion may not apply to you This warranty gives you specific legal rights and you may also have other rights which vary from state to state Creative Micro Designs Inc does not warrant that the functions contained in the software will meet your requirements or that the operation of the software will be uninterrupted or error free However Creative Micro Designs Inc warrants the supplied diskettes to be free from defects in 5 Section 1 materials and workmanship under normal use for a period of ninety 90 days from the date of delivery to you as evidenced by a copy of your receipt LIMITATIONS OF REMEDIES Creative Micro Designs Inc entire liability and your exclusive remedy shall be a the replacement of any diskettes not meeting Creative Micro Design Inc Limited Warranty and which are returned to Creative Micro Designs Inc with a copy
26. ING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE SUCH SOFTWARE EVEN IF CREATIVE MICRO DESIGNS INC OR ANY AUTHORIZED DEALER HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY Some states do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability for incidental or consequential damages so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you Section 2 Printer and Connection Types The Differences in Printers With the abundance of printer manufacturers comes a variety of printers and a diversity of printer models Suitable HQ interpolation printer drivers for most of the commonly used printers are located on the HQ Drivers disk The GEOS LQ Print System does not work with printer drivers but rather with it s own printer adaptation files which are included on the disks Most printers from the computer s viewpoint are identical Regardless if you own a 9 pin printer made by Star Panasonic Epson or Citizen you will only need one printer driver made for Epson compatible printers The situation with 24 pin printers is similar Most of the 24 pin printers are NEC compatible even if they are called Epson compatible Printer Connections Printers can be connected to your computer in different ways Often connections are made to the computer using the serial bus Many printers require the use of an interface if they are to be connected to the serial bus of the computer Due to inferior transmission speed however
27. Peripherals Inc Commodore 648 C 128 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Commodore Electronics Limited GEOS GEOS128 deskTop geoWrite geoPaint geoPublish geoCable geoCalc geoChart geoFont and Berkeley Softworks are trademarks of Berkeley Softworks All other product names mentioned in this manual are the property of their particular manufacturer QwikTop is copyrighted by J ohn F Howard Font Editor is copyrighted by Jim Collette Table Of Contents Section 1 Preliminary Information How To Use This Manual cecccsssesrscencencacoosesoscoscssenessossessens s 1 IE pjana a io o Na 1 How the Perfect Print LQ System WOIFKG cccccsssssssessssccsccsceees 2 Contents of the Perfect Print LQ Package ccsccscscecescescsscscccsccsees 3 Perfect Print LQ and GEOS 128 occcccononccicooonccccnccnncnonccnnacicnoorononos 4 Backup COPIES viral ect cacao 4 Acknowledgements ocio 4 Customer Service and Suppolt scccscosssccerssccccescvccecsccesscecesceeces 5 Limited Warranty and Return Policy cccccsccscscccccsccscsccceccseescees 5 Section 2 Printer and Connection Types The Dilterences in PONS nui a 7 Printer CONNCCHONS idas 7 Printer AdjustmentS ci 8 The Serial MPS 1230 Printer cosesscosccececcesccscceccescosccseeeces 8 Section 3 The HQ Drivers The HO Diver Disk iodo 9 Quick Installation of HQ Prinier Drivers cccsccsssss
28. a point size larger than the current text A space will appear when you type any letter The space can be slightly enlarged if you type the letter in outline There is one catch to this procedure If the font of the whole paragraph is later altered the invisible space changes to the letter or character you typed in the Paragraph font Gothic LQ This is a font which you may find in old German newspapers or Bibles It is divided into 3 font parts Gothic 7 LQ Gothic 12 LQ and Gothic 15 LQ Each of these fonts contain the given font size plus the triple point size which guarantees top quality on a 9 pin printer There are also additional point sizes included which give good results on 24 pin printers 42 LQ Fonts Uncial LQ This font is divided into two sections Uncial 7 LQ and Uncial 15 LQ This font contains only small and capital letters as well as the period comma and slash Ring LQ The letters in this font were all created from circles Ring LQ contains only capital letters numbers and some special characters Keyboard LQ With this font you are able to produce text resembling computer keys The letters are typed using the SHIFT key The small letters are reserved for the special keys They are qtw CTRL t z SHIFT uti to RETURN ats DEL 1 SPACE yx TAB Cc CBM g Fl j F5 h F3 k F7 e Shift Lock r Run Stop b Inst Del v Clr Home d Cursor Y f Cursor X
29. ameter file LQP Labels optional parameter file LOP FontDisk Optional parameter file 61 Appendix C Disk 1 Side B Perfect Print LQ Print System Utilities Californ aLQ Print System font BarrowsLQ Print System font OrnamentLQ Print System font OmamentCapsLQ Print System font FontScratch font utility FontMove font utility FontCreate font utility FontZoom font utility FontSplice font utility FontHide font utility FontDistance font utility FontAdjust font utility FontSize font utility Adjust txt example command text for FontAdjust LoadLQ desk accessory to start GEOS LQ Read me CBM BASIC text program describing INTERFACE and CENTRONICS INTERFACE program to control a parallel printer from BASIC NEW SYS 51000 CENTRONICS mini program to control a parallel printer from BASIC NEW SYS 828 Labels Example example labels for LQPLabels Disk 2 side A HQ Printer Drivers Here you will find around 100 printer drivers An exact explanation can be found in Section 3 Disk 2 side B HQ Fonts LQ Fonts Font Editor Additional LQ fonts plus HQ fonts developed especially for use with the HQ Printer Drivers The GEOS application program Font Editor and it s associated documentation can also be found on this side of the disk This program is shareware It is copyrighted by Jim Collette and has been supplied with his permission The version supplied is a
30. ance between the letters of one or more fonts The distance between letters of a mega font can be removed as well as standardizing the height width relations of different point sizes within an LQ font FontAdjust is used differently than the other font utilities Information is inserted into the program via the geoWrite document Adjust txt In the first line of the file a font name within quotations is expected In the next line the number values wherein a set of three numbers belong to a point size The first number determines the point size to be worked on the second the pixel width of the number characters and the third determines the pixel width of the additional distance for every letter These numbers are 50 Modifying and Creating LQ Fonts Separated from each other with commas You can insert as many of these sets in a line as you wish The next line marks either the end of the document or an additional font name with it s number values All fonts have to be on the same disk with the files FontAdjust and Adjust txt After the program starts the Adjust txt file is read The program then works on the point sizes whereby the space left and right of each letter is removed The new distance is then inserted to the right of each letter Numbers are handled differently they are given all the same width and are then centered The point size is then saved back to the original font This process is then repeated for the other point s
31. as 42 Gothic LO o acne 42 A AA A O 43 RINE A A AP RD A CID 43 Keyboard O RARA ERR a PDD A 43 A A PED POR REA aae NAN 43 Section 6 Modifying and Creating LQ Fonts About the LQ Fonts ccccccssscocccsscecceccessccescsccceccsccescceccecece 45 About the Font Utilities ccccsscccssscccsccsssssccsssscesscccssscccescese 46 Fon CAOS 47 SA A A 47 LOMA o E na 48 ao 20 4 py DOER NR RAE rado 48 PONESDUCO PRN RAR EUR E RR RE SR 49 ole UU of To RPE CORA ERES A A 49 FONLDISIANCE ido at 50 TO te a eo aA 50 BONS IZO a a a a idee aba N 51 Section 7 The Parallel Printer Connection Purchasing a Parallel Cable ccccsssccssssececcccsscscccccsececcessecees 54 Making Your Own Parallel Cable cccccssssccescsoscsesscecescees 54 Appendices Appendix A Problems and Solutions cccccccsssssscsssccceccesseeees 55 Appendix B GEOS LQ Print System Error Messages sescseees 59 Appendix C Contents of the Disks cccccccssccsssssssssssssscseececeee 61 toc 3 Section 1 Preliminary Information How To Use This Manual Different sections of this manual describe the two different driver systems included in the the Perfect Print LQ package Section 3 describes the Perfect Print HQ Driver Disk with interpolation drivers and Section 4 describes the Perfect Print GEOS LQ Print System Either part can be read independently If you are working mainly with geoWri
32. being the selection of the driver which best suits your printer and or interface What follows is an exact description of which printer drivers work best with specific printers and interfaces Check back to the Section 2 topic Printer Adjustments which describes the adjustments you may need to make on your printer Selecting Desired Degree of Quality For high print quality we suggest the use of an HQ driver For special purposes you may naturally choose another driver type A desktop page on the driver disk has been reserved for every driver type and every degree of quality After opening the disk you can flip through the pages and check out the available drivers You may also refer to Section 3 topics Quick Installation of HQ Printer Drivers and Detailed Description of HQ Printer Drivers Selecting Connection Type The type of connection is found at the end of the driver s name S1 S4 55 S7 or GC If your printer is connected with a normal serial cable then use a S driver In choosing the correct S driver check the type of your interface and also your printer The following table offers some help SS use with printers attached via most serial interfaces S4 use with MPS 1230 printers S7 use with Epson printers with Epson interface as well as serial Star printers and Seikosha VC printers i e SP 1200VC SL 80VC Printers connected with a parallel connection do not need secondary addresses If the corre
33. ce between the characters in a font As already stated some of the larger LQ fonts are packed taking up less space in a font This is done by removing the distance between characters During printout the Print System automatically adds the missing spaces This distance differs from one font to another FontDistance allows you to change this distance in existing LQ fonts or in LQ fonts you ve created yourself The program can also be used to check the distance values of a font After starting the program the font is chosen FontDistance then shows the limit point size That point size if existing and all larger ones are packed and need additional space between the characters The limit point size is normally 30 If you wish to have no distance at all between characters type in the number 64 After pressing return you ll be asked for the point size factor This factor must be smaller than 1 and is used by the Print System as a multiplier This determines the pixel width of the distance between characters If the factor is let s say 0 164 then every character in the point size 36 will be followed by a distance of 5 904 pixels 0 164 x 36 Inserting more than three numbers after the point is not necessary When you press return again the values will then be saved to the font FontAdjust This program will hardly be used and is really only for experienced users It can however save you a lot of time FontAdjust is used to alter the dist
34. ct printer type is chosen successful printing will occur when using a printer driver labeled GC If your printout with a serial connected printer is too slow we advise changing to a parallel connection This is only possible if your printer has a centronics port Some printers must be parallel connected if they are to produce a reasonably good printout Which Driver For Which Printer In choosing a printer type special care must be taken to insure a usable printout Of the normally purchased types listed below you are sure to find a type which fits your printer The difference between 9 and 24 pin printers is also very important In the text mode draft or NLQ 9 pin drivers will certainly work with 24 pin printers which can at times be very useful 14 The HQ Drivers 9 pin printers Epson compatible Practically all 9 pin printers such as Epson FX LX Commodore MPS from 1200 up Star Panasonic Citizen Fujitsu new Okidata and Seikosha from SP 1200VC up also SL 80VC and SP xxxAI Most 9 pin printers behave just like those produced by Epson and are referred to as Epson compatible Check your manual or your dealer if there is any question concerning your printers compatibility or simply try out an Epson printer driver to see if your printer is compatible If you own one of the above printers choose a driver designated 9 and Eps We recommend HQ9 med Eps Some SP 1200VC printers have a defective operating system EPROM wh
35. cter is present in the point size which the Print System will use 36 if you re using 12 point in your document When modifying or creating LQ fonts it is also important to match the proportion between width and height in the different point sizes If for example the letter N in 12 point is 8 pixels wide then the N in 36 point should be 24 8x3 pixels wide This is not always the case with the supplied LQ fonts and need not always be It is however a rule which should be followed as closely as possible Slight differences will tend to balance each other out FontAdjust and FontDistance are of help here GEOS LQ cannot handle point sizes requiring more than 14 500 bytes and no font editor we re aware of can handle sizes requiring more than 8 Kbytes In order to work with large point sizes the use of FontZoom FontCreate and FontSplice is recommended With FontZoom larger fonts can be separated into two halves With FontCreate you can create two empty fonts The two halves of the large font are then placed into the two new empty fonts You can then use a font editor and work on them The two halves are then placed back together using FontSplice The font is then saved under the original LQ font name and ID Section 6 topics FontSplice and FontDistance offer more information The larger point sizes of the supplied LQ fonts are not saved in the usual GEOS format The difference lies in the spaces between letters w
36. dependent from the type of printer being used This allows you to creatively influence your printouts You will hardly have to change a parameter file as those included will usually suit the normal user see Section 4 topic The Configuration Files subtopic The Supplied Parameter Files Making changes in the files will require a working knowledge of how the Print System functions Using the LQP Standard parameter file as an example let s examine how parameter files are structured Print density Parameter file for GEOS LQ Standard Yes 24 pin mode meaningless for 9 pin printers 8 1 10 X print density for 9 pin mode 3 1 3 Y print density 4 1 10 X print density for 24 pin mode 1 1 2 Y print density 34 The GEOS LQ Print System These values set defaults for the print menu options see Section 4 topic Starting the Print System subtopic The Print Menu Generally speaking 24 pin mode can always be on yes The Print System will detect the presence of a 9 pin adaptation file and switch automatically Page size Page size Yes Yes Automatic page sizing X Y This should always be left as yes yes The Print System then works out the correct enlargement factors for the chosen print resolution and multiplies them with the following factors 1 0 1 0 0 1 20 0 Additional factor X Y with automatic on With these factors you are able to enlarge or reduce the printout us
37. doubling the calculating speed This is only noticeable with faster 24 pin printers The font utilities operate in 40 column mode only Backup Copies We strongly recommend you make back up copies of all your original Perfect Print LO disks The disks are not copy protected as both the author and the staff of CMD dislike such protection schemes which hinder the legal user s ability to make backups Please do not abuse this service to make pirate copies This is not only unethical but also illegal Remember to protect your originals by covering the write protect notch with tape before copying Proceed with copying following the instructions in your GEOS manual If errors occur in copying please contact CMD for replacement Acknowledgements We wish to thank those authors and graphic designers who helped put Perfect Print LQ together First and foremost many thanks to author and project coordinator Thilo Herrmann who has worked long and hard not only on the original program for Germany but who also dedicated many long hours in translating the package for English speaking countries Most of the fonts were created by Kurt Pruefer but others by Thomas Feucht Prof Helmut Siebert Denis Doehler Heiko Lauer Hartmut Karrasch Thomas Breier and Thilo Herrmann The printer driver disk was put together by Dieter Marten This manual was translated from German to English by Richard Gaudet Austria Thanks also to Richard for bringing this
38. driver but this is not practical 24 The GEOS LQ Print System 9 pin Printers old Star printers SG and others These printers are not or not completely Epson compatible and can only reach a vertical resolution of 144 dpi The main difference is in the paper feed mechanics When using the Print System without an adaptation file with these printers horizontal lines occur between printed lines Using a LQA Oldmechanics adaptation file for most Epson compatible printers or LQA Star SG for a Star SG printer will rectify this problem Other 9 8 7 pin Printers This includes Seikosha SP 180VC SP 1000VC very old Star printers MPS 801 803 Epson GX 80 serial If you own one of these printers you may not be able to use GEOS LQ at all There are simply too many insufficiencies which do not allow a higher resolution printout than with the normal GEOS printer drivers We recommend you purchase a new or used Epson compatible printer with a parallel connection If your printer is incompatible with Perfect Print we will allow you to return the package for a refund as long as it is returned complete and in original condition within 30 days of receipt Please contact CMD to obtain a Return Authorization Number and instructions 24 pin Printers NEC compatible This includes printers from NEC and practically all so called Epson compatible and NEC compatible printers like Star Panasonic KXP Seikosha Fujitsu and Okidata except SL 80VC
39. e Print System disk but are instead located on the document disk 33 Section 4 LQP Labels sets the page height at 1 1 2 inches which is the normal height of disk labels Altering this file will allow the use of labels of other sizes The number of copies is determined in the print menu A sample file is located on the disk LQP Standard contains the standard parameter which the Print System will use if no parameter file is found on the disk Use this file as a pattern when modifying or creating your own files LQP 11 inch is only useful if you encounter problems with the formfeed on your printer This file guarantees a page length of 11 inches but cannot be used with single sheet operation LQP Nooptimize switches off the optimizing function of the Print System That function reduces the print head motion The printer will become slower without that function but it is meaningful to switch it off if the printer is in the elite mode and delivers incorrect results LQP Pixelcorrect switches on the pixel correction mechanism This improves the printout quality a little when printing thick fonts If you wish to combine the features of several of these files compare your changes with the Standard par file The following points are important page size additional factor other additional margin pages paper paper length The Structure of the Parameter File A parameter file contains important parameters which are in
40. ection 3 9 pin Printers For a 9 pin printer including Seikosha SL 80VC it is best to use a driver from page two on the desktop If your printer is serially connected then one of the following drivers will be correct HQ9 med Eps S5 for most Epson compatible printers with an internal or external Xetec Cardco Supra serial interface HQ9 med IBM S5 for most IBM compatible printers with an internal or external serial interface HQ9 med Eps S4 for the MPS 1230 see Section 2 topic Printer Adjustments subtopic The Serial MPS 1230 Printer HQ9 med Eps S7 for most other printers with built in serial connection including Seikosha SP xxxVC remember to change to ASCII mode using DIP switches If you re not sure which of these drivers is correct for your printer try each until one works If your printer is connected with a parallel connection then one of the following drivers should be correct HQ9 med Eps GC for most Epson compatible 9 pin printers which are E parallel connected user port connection compatible with geoCable HQ 9 med IBM GC for most IBM compatible printers and the MPS 1000 printer using parallel connection 24 pin Printers Drivers located on page four of the desktop are for use here If your printer is serial connected then use one of these drivers HQ24 low Eps S5 for most printers with an external or internal serial interface HQ24 low Eps S7 for most other printers with a built in serial co
41. ed as you wish A configuration file is installed by simply copying one to your work disk If you have several configuration files of the same type on your disk remember that the Print System will choose the first of these files as it s configuration file Parameter Files LQP Contained in the parameter file are parameters which can be altered to change the appearance of the printout These changes range from the position of the underlining function to the height of the page One of these parameter files may be copied on to your work disk it is not a requirement The Supplied Parameter Files A few parameter files are included on the disks which can be used to serve different purposes If you wish to use one of these simply copy it on to your work disk LQP 24 ideal is useful when you want a 180 x 180 dpi X 4 Y 1 printout on a 24 pin printer The text is slightly reduced resulting in an excellent printout when using point sizes 6 9 12 and 18 Installing the printer driver 24ideal geoWrite for geoWrite allows the use of the entire page length LQP 1 3 wide enlarges geoWrite 1 3 or 2 0 text to fit the entire width of the page eliminating unwanted left and right margins This is useful when printing narrow geoWrite documents and especially meaningful when using a 9 pin printer with a X 6 Y 2 print density as the fonts will not be reduced LQP FontDisk informs the Print System that the fonts are not located on th
42. erent method must be used GEOS allows the installation of different printer drivers without which normal printing is impossible yet the print quality produced by most standard GEOS printer drivers leaves a lot to be desired The collection of HQ printer drivers included with this package solves this problem These newly designed drivers use special interpolation routines to deliver substantially improved print quality The results are not quite as excellent as those of the GEOS LQ Print System but are equal or superior to printouts of other programs outside of GEOS Special HQ fonts are also included which work together with the HQ printer drivers to produce the best possible quality Normal GEOS fonts can also be used in connection with the HQ drivers with excellent results The installation and use of the GEOS LQ Print System and the HQ drivers are relatively simple Problems may occur with the diversity of the printer types Therefore please read the installation instructions in this manual carefully which cover most available printers and how they should be configured with this system How the Perfect Print LQ System Works What is it that makes the printout quality of GEOS documents so poor The answer is simple The pixels dots which make up the monitor screen are not clearly defined therefore the edges and comers are not that noticeable The printout being more detailed and exact makes the deficiencies visible This problem can be
43. et from the centronics plug via switches to ground pin 16 Then you are able to switch the auto linefeed and start a reset These connections have been tested out on many 9 and 24 pin printers without complications 54 Appendix A Problems and Solutions The most common problems which may occur when using Perfect Print are listed here together with possible solutions The Printer fails to respond Check to see if the printer is connected correctly It may be parallel or serial connected but not both Make sure the printer is plugged in turned on and on line You may be using the wrong connection file or a printer driver with the wrong kind of connection If you re using a Seikosha printer make sure that you use an S7 LQConnect file or printer driver It is also possible that the cable is defective Turn the printer off then on and try again The printer prints garbage Its possible that the serial connection is using the wrong secondary address Try using a different LQConnect file or a printer driver with another S number Read through the appropriate sections again and consult your interface manual Make sure you re using the correct printer adaptation or printer driver You may also have a defective printer cable You may be using a 9 pin printer which is behaving as a 7 pin printer Switch the printer to the ASCII mode using the DIP switches see Section 2 topic Printer Adjustments Some printers just won t wo
44. files of the Print System are geoWrite documents Changes are rarely necessary and should only be done when you re absolutely certain please keep a back up of the original just in case If the printout with the serial cable is too slow we recommend a parallel connection to the user port This is of course only possible if your printer has the appropriate parallel centronics jack Some printers MUST be parallel connected in order to achieve improved print quality MPS 1000 You may try out the LQConnect GCSlow file if you re having problems with the parallel connection LQConnect GCFast speeds up data transfer a bit but doesn t work with every printer 23 Section 4 Which Adaptation for Which Printer Type The choice of the printer adaptation is extremely important The most widely purchased printer types are listed below The adaptation files for the printer types begin with the letters LQA and can be found on the desktop pages three for 9 pin printers and four for 24 pin printers When choosing an adaptation file it is very important to discern between 9 and 24 pin printers If you own a 9 pin Epson compatible printer you shouldn t need any adaptation file at ail If you do need one then copy that one only to your work disk This completes installation of the adaptation file If you have more adaptation files on your work disk the program will only recognize the first one found If you ve already read the section abo
45. font The next question is answered by pressing the return key FontZoom will now ask if you wish to work on the whole font Answer no The next question first half can be answered with yes After a few moments you ll be asked for the destination font Enter the name of the first dummy font Next you will be asked for the point size Press the return key again and the first part of the procedure is finished When the program asks if you would like to perform another operation answer yes Follow the same procedure this time allowing the program to work on the second half of the font and saving the font to the second dummy font Now you can work on both halves with a font editor if necessary Afterwards the two halves can be combined with FontSplice FontZoom s primary function lies in it s ability to re size a font This is extremely useful for creating new point sizes for geoWrite and first draft point sizes for the Print System These point sizes will require some editing with a font editor to make them look good To use this function follow these procedures The program will ask for the source font and it s point size Then the point size to be created The font will then be reduced or enlarged If you answer 100 to the next question Size relation X in percentage the proportions of the newly created font are correct With 200 48 Modifying and Creating LQ Fonts the width will be doubled and 50 halves it Then the font is
46. for parallel connected 9 pin printers user port to printer Note In addition to the file LQConnect GC parallel connected MPS 1000 printers also require the file LQA IBM 9 located on page 3 of the deskTop 24 pin Printers 24 pin printers the Seikosha SL 80VC falls under the 9 pin printer category need one of the following files which are found on page four of the GEOS LQ program disk LQA Epson Q for Epson printers LQA NEW Epson Q is only for the newest Epson printers and not usable on the LQ 400 LQA NEC 24 for most all other 24 pin printers LQA IBM 24 for IBM compatible printers rare If your 24 pin printer is serially connected you probably won t need any other files If your printout is incorrect you will probably require an additional LQConnect file located on page two of the program disk Try out LQConnect S1 LQConnect 4 and LQConnect S7 to find one that works Parallel connected 24 pin printers need to have the LQConnect GC on the work disk 20 The GEOS LQ Print System Making a Work Disk Before you begin you should take time to read the Read Me file located on the GEOS LQ Print System disk This file contains additional information which might not be contained in this manual After reading the file create a work disk by copying the following files to an empty GEOS formatted disk GeosLQ the Print System application program StartLQ a desk accessory which allows y
47. ger point sizes though these are often easily discernable The GEOS LQ Print System does use interpolation routines when printing graphics in geoWrite when normal GEOS fonts are used and when very large point sizes in very high resolution are used Contents of the Perfect Print LQ Package Perfect Print LQ is available in two versions The standard package and the complete package The difference in the two packages lies solely in the number of LQ fonts which are included The standard package has 7 and the complete package has 45 Included in both packages are the following HQ Printer Driver Disk with HQ drivers for 9 and 24 pin printers Fonts optimized for use with the HQ drivers GEOS LQ Print System for geoWrite 7 or 45 LQ fonts for use with the GEOS LQ Print System Programs for modifying or creating LQ fonts Section 1 The standard package is contained on two double sided 1541 disks The first disk contains the GEOS LQ Print System and five LQ fonts and the second contains the HQ printer drivers with HQ fonts and two additional LQ fonts The complete package is contained on six double sided 1541 disks The first two are identical with the standard package and the other four contain the collection of LQ fonts Perfect Print LQ and GEOS 128 The GEOS LQ Print System operates with GEOS 128 in both 40 and 80 column modes This is also the case with the accessories In both modes the 2 MHz processor mode is used
48. hich are normally saved in the GEOS format The LQ fonts do not contain these spaces but pack all the letters together When they are used GEOS LQ places the spaces between letters itself If when modifying or creating your own fonts you wish to have these fonts packed you must mark them with the appropriate values using the help program called FontDistance This program allows you to adjust the space between the letters of your font But even if you don t want to pack your fonts you should mark your font with FontDistance Otherwise the Print System will handle the font like a standard GEOS font About the Font Utilities Some of the font utilities allow you to save a font to another point size than it was loaded from This is useful when working with mega fonts and should only be used there 46 Modifying and Creating LQ Fonts Single drive users can also use these programs without restrictions as the request for the font file is made directly before saving or loading You then have the option to choose a font from another disk Make sure that you never have less than one and never more than seven point sizes in a font geoWrite will crash if it encounters an empty font or a font with eight or more point sizes If you still wish to have more than 7 point sizes in a font you will have to hide some from geoWrite using the program FontHide Section 6 topic FontHide If you encounter error messages when using the font utilit
49. ich needs to be repiaced before they will run properly 9 pin printers IBM compatible MPS 1000 parallel only some Panasonic Okidata Tandy and other often older printer models Also some Star models when in certain modes Some older printers are not Epson compatible but rather IBM compatible This is the case with the MPS 1000 which must be parallel connected In addition other older printers may be IBM compatible A printer driver with the abbreviations IBM with GC because of the parallel connection must be used here Some newer 9 pin Epson compatible printers can be switched to an IBM mode and will work fine with an IBM driver but this may not be practical 9 pin Printers old Star printers SG and others These printers are not or not completely Epson compatible and can only reach a vertical resolution of 144 dpi The main difference is in the paper feed mechanics When using Epson drivers with these printers horizontal white lines occur between printed lines Using an SG driver will correct this problem Other 9 8 7 pin Printers This includes Seikosha SP 180VC SP 1000VC very old Star printers MPS 801 803 Epson GX 80 serial If you own one of these printers you may not be able to use Perfect Print at all There are simply too many insufficiencies which do not allow a higher resolution printout than with the normal GEOS printer drivers We recommend that you consider purchasing a new or used Epson compatib
50. ies you can look up the error and solution in Appendix B GEOS LQ Print System Error Messages Any error messages which are not included in that listing are usually self explanatory If you wish to leave a program click Cancel or fill in no value and click Cancel in the appearing dialog box OK can always be chosen by simply pressing return FontScratch FontScratch is a simple program which erases point sizes This is useful if you do not need some of the point sizes in a font and want to create additional disk space If the GEOS LQ Print System needs a point size you have erased you will notice a loss in print quality If you own a 9 pin printer and work mainly with 12 point you may certainly erase point sizes 30 and 45 without any loss of print quality When using a 24 pin printer in high resolution you should always keep the largest point size You can also erase the point sizes 14 18 and 24 and with FontZoom create other point sizes The procedure is easy Simply follow the prompts to erase and create the point sizes you want FontMove FontMove can transfer a point size from one font to another That way you are able to create an entirely new font When doing this remember to include any type of smaller point size for geoWrite They don t have to be identical to the larger point sizes and at least one larger point size for the Print System to use In case you want your smaller point sizes to be exact reproductio
51. ight pins are used This box is not visible when a 9 pin adaptation file is being installed Print density X and Y The most important function in the print menu and the very heart of the GEOS LQ Print System is the regulating of the resolution or print density with X and Y The number value of X extends from 1 through 9 and determines the horizontal print density Y values extend from 1 through 3 to control the vertical density The values X 3 and Y 1 are equal to the normal GEOS resolution 80 x 72 dpi on a 9 pin printer The highest resolution is X 9 and Y 3 reaching a print quality of 240 x 216 dpi With a slow serial connected printer we recommend a X Y setting of 6 2 120 x 144 or 8 3 240 x 216 With a 24 pin printer we recommend a setting of 4 1 180 x 180 For even greater demands we suggest a setting of 6 2 360 x 360 and recommend using a parallel connection new ribbons tend to smear at 6 2 so use an older one or adjust the print head spacing away from the paper More on this in Section 4 topic Quality Speed and Serial Printers Not all printers are able to reach the highest print density Some older 9 pin printers cannot print higher than the Y value of 2 while older 24 pin printers are limited to the Y value of 1 Sometimes different X values produce the same results The 24 pin mode box switches between 2 different X Y values and should be set prior to making changes in the X or Y values 28 The GEOS LQ Pr
52. ing other factors If for instance you replace the first value with 2 0 the printout will be twice as wide 1 0 1 0 gt 0 1 20 0 Factor X Y with automatic switched off If the automatic page adaptation value is set to no the Print System uses the factors here and does not care about the resolution The result is a reduction in higher resolutions Fonts Fonts Yes Allow use of larger fonts GEOS LQ can only use larger point sizes if this question is answered with yes A no answer only allows the use of the original font point size The printout is then similar to that of an HQ printer driver No No Allow only a whole number enlargement X Y No No Allow only a whole number reduction X Y 0 5 0 5 Correction amount for rounding font factors if yes is chosen The enlargement or reduction of fonts in whole number factors is hereby forced This is very similar to the sizing option in the print menu but is separated from the X Y values The correction amount they are the same for 35 Section 4 the print menu adjustment are used for rounding up or down the font factors The correct value here is 0 5 This function will rarely be needed Yes text formatting according to geoWrite geoWrite emulation This is the preset adjustment for geoWrite format in the print menu A yes answer allows the line makeup of the Print System to be the same as that of geoWrite if possible
53. instance the normal University 10 point in your document not University LQ the Print System will use University 24 point The printout however will be in low resolution If you re satisfied with these results and only work with smaller point sizes then 24 point will be sufficient The Print System however was developed to produce high resolution printouts with the best possible quality In order to accomplish this the system needs larger fonts These LQ fonts are contained on the supplied disks When possible use the LQ fonts with the larger point sizes of 30 36 and 45 in your documents These ensure the highest resolution as the letters will be smoothed and rounded If your text is written for example in 12 point the printout in triple density fits the LQ point size 36 exactly This replacement of point sizes may change the position of the text in the printout slightly Therefore care should be taken with tabulations and page breaks especially if the gradual sizing option in the print menu is switched off You should not attempt to use the point sizes 30 36 or 45 for normal text even though some may appear in the font menu geoWrite doesn t handle these sizes very well They are however good for titles They appear on the screen in BSW 9 point but print out in the correct font and point size We advise care when using these sizes in your text as the page end in the printout will be different than it appears on the screen 4
54. int System With low resolution settings best results are reached using the University LQ font More on fonts in Section 5 A slight improvement in print quality may be reached if you set your printer transport to friction feed instead of tractor Adjusting the print head gap may also help Interpolation The rest of the switch boxes can be ignored if you wish to start printing Three special functions can be switched on and off with these boxes An activated Interpolation box makes sure that graphics and very large point sizes are printed in fine quality identical to HQ printer driver quality LQ fonts will normally be printed in a much higher quality Even if normal GEOS fonts are used activating interpolation will give you good results HQ quality Printing will however take more time especially with 24 pin printers If you re interested in a fast printout and are using big point sizes then deactivate the Interpolation switch box Deactivating interpolation can also be helpful when you want your graphics printed just as they appear on your screen as they will not be interpolated geoWrite Format Gradual Sizing If the print resolution deviates from the normal GEOS resolution of 80 x 72 dpi GEOS LQ will not use the point size in the text but one that better fits the chosen resolution Often the font chosen from the disk is not the exact size For example GEOS LQ might need Roma 27 point but because this font size is not available
55. ite where you will have to select another document yourself or create a new document If the program can not locate geoWrite on any of the drives you will be brought back to the deskTop Return to deskTop will do exactly that The present text is always the one chosen from the file selection window even if this was left with a cancel command This way you can always return with the document to geoWrite for editing or text entry If you should find yourself back in the deskTop for no apparent reason something has gone wrong during a disk access Check your disk for the presence of corrupt files or disk errors If you cannot locate the cause of the problem you may want to create a new work disk 30 The GEOS LQ Print System Entering the Print System from geoWrite Its a bit awkward having to leave geoWrite and return to the deskTop in order to start the Print System For this reason a desk accessory named StartLQ has been created After StartLQ has been copied to your geoWrite work disk it will appear under the geos menu in the upper left hand corner of the command menu in geoWrite After clicking StartLQ the Print System is loaded and started The document you were working on will be carried over into the Print System and you will find yourself in the print parameter menu Unfortunately the actual page of the document in geoWrite is not saved when a desk accessory is chosen Therefore update your page using the file menu
56. izes and fonts found in the Adjust txt document Instead of the second set of numbers you also may insert N Then the numbers are treated like the other characters If you fill in A instead of the third number all characters get the same width defined by the second value as the numbers There is an example on the disk which you may want to examine This should only be used as an example Adjust txt must not contain more than 255 elements Each file letter counts as an element Garbage on the screen during adjustment is normal FontSize This program shows the size of a point size in bytes If the value shown is over 14500 the font should be in some way reduced just delete two or three seldom used characters and set their width to one Otherwise an error message from the Print System will some day inform you that the font is too large 51 Section 7 The Parallel Printer Connection Most printers purchased today are equipped with a centronics jack This type of connection is normal for most computers The C 64 128 are connected to the printer via the serial port usually to the disk drive In order to use a centronics printer commodore users must hook up their computer first to an interface These interfaces are little computers in themselves This explains why every print program you own must be suited to the printer and interface before use In fact the serial connection isn t efficient at all for GEOS users as
57. lated This will of course result in a much longer printing time and is not practical when printing in high resolution Yes Optimize printing for the left margin The unprinted part of the left margin is cut off and replaced with spaces This saves time and unnecessary print head movement If your printer has trouble with this setting switch the optimizing to no No Pixel correction Yes delivers better results when printing thick fonts in the second highest resolution Yes Interpolation of graphics and normal GEOS fonts Yes interpolates graphics normal GEOS fonts and very large LQ fonts This is just the default for the print menu Interpolation option The Connection File LQConnect The Print System reads the manner in which the printer is connected from the LQConnect file Parallel or serial information device and secondary address numbers are contained in this file It is normally not necessary to modify this file You may have cause to change the device number from 4 to 5 if you re working with two serial printers On the system disk are 3 GC variations of the LQConnect file LQ Connect GCSlow can be tested out if LQConnect GC does not work We recommend the use of LQConnect GCFast only if your printer works with LQConnect GC That file causes the Print System to use the fastest possible data transfer method which may not work with all computers and printers especially with GEOS 128 in 2 MH
58. le 15 Section 3 printer with a parallel connection If your printer is incompatible with Perfect Print we will allow you to return the package for a refund as long as it is returned complete and in original condition within 30 days of receipt Please contact CMD to obtain a Return Authorization Number and instructions 24 pin Printers NEC compatible This includes printers from NEC and practically all so called Epson compatible and NEC compatible printers like Star Panasonic KXP Seikosha Fujitsu and Okidata except SL 80VC see 9 pin printers Most so called Epson compatible 24 pin printers are in reality NEC compatible Use therefore primarily NEC drivers and fall back to Eps only if needed Do not use the EpN drivers as they only work with the very newest Epson and Epson compatible printers The SL 80VC is a specially constructed Seikosha printer which has a 24 pin print head but otherwise behaves like a 9 pin printer 24 pin Printers from Epson original Epson printers The Epson printers present some problems due to the lack of a software command in their operating system Old Epson 24 pin printers and LQ 400 models cannot use med or high drivers Best results can be obtained by using Eps low low and low drivers If you are a fortunate owner of an LQ 550 or a new LQ 850 860 or 1050 2550 you can use the EpN drivers The Eps drivers also work with these printers 24 pin Printers IBM co
59. loaded If the font is to be reduced two additional questions will be asked which deal with the reduction process There are actually two reduction processes The simpler process reduces the a font by simply dropping some pixels This can lead to unpleasant results such as the loss of the cross line in the letter H The second process eliminates this defect collecting all of the black pixels When the program asks if it should collect all the black pixels you should normally answer yes to both questions An additional question will ask if the whole font should be worked on Answer yes only when the resulting font will be smaller than 8 Kbytes If the file will be larger than 8 Kbytes answer no and then decide which half of the source font you wish to copy to the destination font The zoom process follows followed by the creation of the final font file FontSplice The two halves of a font which were separated with FontZoom can be placed back together as one file with FontSplice FontSplice can also unite a mega font into one point size When joining fonts with FontSplice all characters wider than a pixel are carried over from the first source font Characters which are only one pixel wide are carried over from the second source font The results are then saved to the destination disk under the real point size If this size exists on the destination disk the old point size will be replaced by the new size This program is relatively easy
60. mpatible A few 24 pin printers are IBM compatible usually very old 24 pin printers Use the IBM GC drivers and a parallel connection in these cases Many new 24 pin printers can be switched to IBM mode It is usually better however not to use these printers in such modes Problems which may occur If the printout is horizontally ragged make sure that the condensed print mode on your printer is switched off If you are unable to produce quality results with these drivers or are unable to get your printer to work with this package please contact CMD Technical support for help Let us know the exact printer make and type and how the printer is connected to your computer serial parallel interface 16 The HQ Drivers etc You might also supply us with some sample printouts if possible We will try to solve the problem but we may require a copy of your printer and or interface manual s if the printer and or interface are less common Installing the Driver Installation is relatively simple Copy the chosen driver on to a work disk or system disk GEOS 128 Choose select printer from the geos menu Choose the driver from the dialog box and click OK The driver is now installed and ready for use in every application If you are using gate Way make sure the driver is the first to appear on your disk or use the chooser to select it HQ Fonts The best results with the HQ drivers are obtained using specially designed
61. n older version and a faster new version which also operates in 80 column mode on the 128 is available from Comm Plex Software See the Editor Updates file for more information Disks 3 to 6 Additional LQ Fonts for the Print System These disks are only part of the complete package They contain additional LQ fonts These can be ordered separately from CMD 62 Y e nn IN o Creative Micro Designs Inc PO Bo x 646 East Longmeadow MA 01028 413 525 0023 aeee MA 1 PP 30006 Printed in USA
62. ndix B lists the possible error messages and also offers additional help If everything runs smoothly a file selection box appears with it s options Drive lets you switch drives Disk informs the program of a newly inserted disk and Cancel takes you to the End Menu Click on one of the documents and then choose Open Then the print menu appears The Print Menu If you ve mistakenly arrived in the print menu simply click Return and you can select a different file Cancel brings you to the End Menu Print allows you to do just that If this is your very first printout just click on Print to test things out and to make certain that the correct files have been installed If problems occur refer to Appendix A Problems and Solutions 27 Section 4 From Page To Page With these options you are able to print one some or all of the pages of the document Clicking on the arrows moves the page number up or down You may also directly write the page numbers into the broken lined boxes beside the arrows by using the numbers and the DEL key on the keyboard Single Sheets Coples If you click on the Single Sheet box this becomes filled in The program will then ask you to insert a sheet before it begins to print a new page With Copies you can determine the total number of copies of this file you wish to print out 24 pin Mode If you choose this box your printer will print with all 24 pins otherwise only e
63. nnection If you re not sure which of these drivers is the correct one then try each until one works 10 The HQ Drivers If your printer is parallel connected user port connection use the HQ24 _ low Eps GC printer driver Using the drivers on page 7 of the desktop will improve the print quality even more on all 24 pin printers with the exception of Epson Those for the new Epson printers can be found on page 8 Old Epson 24 pin printers can use the drivers on pages 5 and 6 Contents of the GEOS HQ Driver Disk by DeskTop page number Page Driver Name Description Quality 1 HQ9 low Eps IBM HQ 9 pin Epson low 2 HQ9 med Eps IBM HQ 9 pin Epson med 3 HQ9 high Eps IBM HQ 9 pin Epson high 4 HQ24 low Eps IBM HQ 24 pin Epson low 5 HQ24 low Eps IBM HQ 24 pin Epson low 6 HQ24 low Eps IBM HQ 24 pin Epson low 7 HQ24 med NEC IBM HQ 24 pin NEC comp med 8 HQ24 med EpN HQ 24 pin spec Epson med 9 HQ24 high NEC IBM HQ 24 pin NEC comp high 10 HQ24 high EpN HQ 24 pin spec Epson high 11 MG9 low Eps IBM Mega 9 pin Epson low 12 MG9 med Eps IBM Mega 9 pin Epson medium 13 MG24 low Eps IBM Mega 24 pin Epson low 14 MG24 med NEC IBM Mega 24 pin NEC comp med 15 MG24 med EpN Mega 24 pin spec Epson med 16 Simple9 IBM9 amp 24 Primitive Driver for fast print 17 18 Drivers for Star SG and exotic printers Detailed Description of HQ Printer Drivers
64. ns of the larger ones use FontZoom Using FontMove should not pose any problems You choose the source font and pick a point size You then choose either a destination font or create a new font The point sizes between source and destination fonts must 47 Section 6 be the same If the point size in the destination font already exists it will be written over Take care in choosing an ID number for the newly created fonts Never chose 0 as that is the ID number for BSW 9 FontCreate This program simply creates an empty font file Using FontSplice and FontZoom you can then save single point sizes to this font NEVER open an empty font under geoWrite as GEOS will crash and your text may be lost After starting the program you will be asked for the disk drive a name for the new font and the ID number Be careful not to duplicate the ID numbers If you re using this font simply as a storage area for FontSplice and FontZoom the ID number isn t very important FontZoom FontZoom serves two completely different purposes You can both split a point size in half and re size a font If you wish to split a point size proceed in this manner First create two dummy fonts using FrontCreate Then start FontZoom When the program asks for the source font answer with the proper name and then the proper point size The program then asks which point size it should create Answer with the same point size as that of the source
65. oint sizes that cause geoWrite to crash and which cannot be deleted The only solution is to move all point sizes of the font to a new font with FontMove Existing fonts can be changed to LQ fonts with FontZoom and eventually FontAdjust If a large point size is available but no small size create the small size using FontZoom and a reduction factor of 3 You can then clean up the font using a font editor If a small point size is available but no large one create the large one using FontZoom and an enlargement factor of 3 Cleaning up large fonts can be very time consuming At least two point sizes must be present in an LQ font One is needed for the screen and geoWrite and one for the Print System If you re using point size 12 for the screen then a point size of 36 is recommended for GEOS LQ 9 pin printer set for X 8 9 If there is point size 40 available instead the system will reduce the font slightly causing a reduction in print quality If you want to modify an existing LQ font or create an entirely new one please follow this rule The characters which make up one point size within a font should not differ in anything other than size when creating other point 45 Section 6 sizes of that same font GEOS LQ swaps the chosen point size with another at it s own discretion If you wish to insert a special character in a font be sure this character is present in all point sizes You must at least make sure that the chara
66. ore it and click OK and the Print System will be loaded It isn t necessary to update your document when using this method to launch the system The disadvantage is that you ll have to install another driver if you want to print with any other GEOS application 31 Section 4 Quality Speed and Serial Printers The Print System is an optimized and very fast assembly language program Still a printout in the highest resolution does take some time 9 pin printers tend to slow down the C 64 128 24 pin printers push both the computer and printer to their limits The serial printer connection really puts the brakes on Due to this you probably won t want to print in the highest resolution every time Best results in low resolution printouts are achieved with the University font The highest resolution with 9 pin printers is reached with X 9 and Y 3 values 240 x 216 If the values are slightly reduced to X 8 and Y 3 the speed of the printer is doubled X 6 and Y 2 is even faster but the print quality suffers due to an unfavorable reduction factor This can be adjusted by copying the LQP 1 3 wide parameter file onto your work disk and erasing all other LQP files The geoWrite 1 3 2 0 documents are then widened and the Print System prints the fonts without reduction or enlargement Texts that use the entire width and text in geoWrite 128 must set the right margin at 6 inches 24 pin printers reach their highest resolution of 360 x 36
67. ou to enter the Print System from within geoWrite this will appear in the geos menu at least one LQ font RomaLQ UniversityLQ etc from the GEOS LQ Print System disk geoWrite the GEOS word processor deskTop or an alternate user interface The back side of the GEOS LQ Print System disk contains more LQ fonts plus utilities for creating and revising LQ fonts There are also two small programs for using a parallel connected printer with commodore BASIC on the C 64 A font editor is located on the back side of the HQ Drivers disk The simplest thing to do is to copy all the needed files onto one disk It is also possible to spread the files around by copying them onto different drives This is practical if you use several 1541 drives or wish to use a lot of fonts Please note that geoWrite StartLQ and any fonts you wish to use from within geoWrite must be on the same disk GeosLQ connection file parameter file and the printer adaptation file must also be on a disk together The LQ fonts are usually placed on the GeosLQ disk If you copy the parameter file LQP FontDisk to your GeosLQ work disk then fonts may also be placed on the document disk see Section 4 topic The Configuration Files Documents may be saved on any disk you have room on The Read Me file contains more information about configuration possibilities You can quickly run out of space if you are using a 1541 disk with only 170 kilobytes To save
68. product to the attention of CMD Editing of the manual was performed at CMD by Doug Cotton 4 Preliminary Information A special thanks belongs to Florian Mueller who inspired the whole project and gave much support Customer Service and Support If you should encounter problems with Perfect Print LQ first re read the passages dealing with your problem before calling CMD You may find the solution and save yourself some time and expense You may contact CMD Technical Support at 413 525 0023 CMD Technical Support may also be contacted on Quantum Link CIN Hardware Support Group GEnie Commodore Flagship and via CMD s BBS 413 525 0148 Jf you encounter mistakes in the program or manual please let us know When reporting bugs please provide as much information as possible about your system and how it is configured and include a step by step procedure to duplicate the problem Without such information problems can be very hard to reproduce and may go undetected When reporting errors in the manual be sure to include the Edition and printing numbers of the manual which you have located on the copyright page as well as page and paragraph information Bug reports and manual corrections should be mailed in to CMD as these can rarely be fixed by advice from a technician and must usually be forwarded to the author Send all such reports to Creative Micro Designs Inc Attn Technical Support BR PP P O Box 646 East Longmeadow M
69. r SG 10 Use the low drivers for these to attain 240 x 144 dpi with four passes over a line 12 The HQ Drivers high squeezes the highest resolution out of your printer A higher print density on 9 and 24 pin printers is unattainable 9 pin printers reach an unreduced resolution of 240 x 216 dpi using six passes and 24 pin printers attain 360 x 360 dpi using four passes The difference between med and high is not that drastic We recommend high only when uncompromised print quality is demanded as it requires the longest printing time The print ribbon should not be brand new or your printout may smear Printer Type Specifications Following the degree of quality term is the abbreviation for the printer type which is usually Eps Drivers with this name work with just about every printer 9 and 24 pin 24 pin drivers for high resolution are named NEC or EpN EpN drivers only work with newer Epson printer models not LQ 400 The NEC drivers work with NEC and nearly all so called Epson compatible 24 pin printers The IBM drivers are for those rare IBM compatible printers MPS 1000 parallel Only parallel IBM drivers are contained on the disk Drivers for exotic printers such as Star SG are also available Other drivers such as for color printers are in development Connection Specifications The final specification listed in the driver s name indicated the type of connection Here you will find the abbreviations
70. r the Print System especially if you re using 1541 disk drive On this work disk you ll need geoWrite deskTop or an alternate user interface and the following files from the GEOS LQ Print System disk de GeosLQ a su StartLQ at least one LQ font i e RomaLQ Depending upon your printer and how it is connected you may also need one or two additional files to adapt the system to your printer If so make sure that you place only one LQConnect and one LQA file A for printer Adaptation on your work disk Please note that the Print System is entirely independent from the HQ drivers and does not use them or any other GEOS printer drivers If the Print System appears to lock up when tested it may possibly be waiting for a parallel printer which is not connected Pressing the q key on your keyboard will remedy this situation 19 Section 4 9 pin Printers If you are using a serially connected 9 pin printer no additional files are normally required and you can begin to print If the printout results are incorrect then it is likely that you will need one of the following files which are located on page two of the GEOS LQ program disk LQConnect S7 for use with many of the serially connected Seikosha SP xxxVC printers Check to make sure the printer is switched to the ASCII mode using the DIP switches LQConnect S4 for use with the MPS 1230 see Section 2 topic Printer Adjustments LQConnect GC
71. rial Printer ssssssscscccssccressssesersessseres 32 Transferring Existing Documents sscccececrssscessseeecsseeessseoseoeees 32 The Configuration Files cscssscscssssssescecnessscceesseccersssseoseoees 33 Parameter Files LOP sssssscosccsssscccssccscceccccesscesesescsasseaeeces 33 The Supplied Parameter Files ccssccccsssssereesscesssscesssveeseceseses 33 The Structure of the Parameter File csccccccscssssssssseceesses 34 Print density occcononoconnonccnnnnnonncnconccnncananenecacanacccnnnccncnnoneno 34 Page SIZE oocoomocononnoccccnnnoncncncnnnonocnccnoncanennccccnnononcncnccninconarecos 35 FON S ooccoconoccnoncconoconcnocnonocnncnonnnncnncnncnnccnncno nora rnaroncononocnoronos 35 Pages PaPeT ooooccccccconooncnccnonccnnnoncocccnnnanoconccnononacccononaccnnncnicacinns 36 E nonnconccnocnncnnanorononanorno nero ronca cen cen conse n cessa cascas once cas sesta sea sede 37 The Connection File LQConnect essosesseseesecsseesesesesesesesess 38 The Printer Adaptation ooooccoccconoononononenccnnnnnonncnccnoccnconacccnioneoo 38 toc 2 Table of Contents Section 5 LQ Fonts How the LQ Fonts Work cccccosscsssssccssscvesscssececscceccscecceecees 41 Installing LQ Fonts on your Work Disk ccccssssececccsssececceeeeee 42 Information Concerning the LQ Fomts sccccccccssssssscescssoseeceeeee 42 Paragraph FONE ol
72. rivers for 9 pin printers and 24 pin drivers for 24 pin printers It is possible to use a 9 pin driver for a 24 pin printer but printouts in graphic mode high will appear stretched across the page No problems occur in the text mode so geoCalc users may use such a driver since geoCalc does not presently work with 24 pin printer drivers Degree of Print Quality Following the printer type abbreviation and number of pins is the ears of print quality low indicates the lowest degree of print quality which can still give good results This is also the fastest of the HQ type drivers 9 pin printers print each line twice reaching a resolution of 240 x 144 dots per inch dpi 24 pin printers print each line only once reaching 180 x 180 dpi 24 pin printers also have a low and low resolution low prints a reduced 360 x 180 dpi and low an expanded 360 x 180 dpi With these drivers it is possible to get the best results from the older Epson 24 pin printers in addition to working with all other 24 pin printers med indicates a medium degree of quality giving very good results 9 pin printers print each line three times and reach 240 x 216 dpi 24 pin printers use two passes to reach a resolution of 360 x 360 dpi Older Epson 24 pin printers and all LQ 400 models are not compatible with med drivers therefore use the low or low drivers described above The same can be said for very old Star 9 pin printers like Sta
73. rk with the Print System If you use a Panasonic KXP series 24 pin printer it might be set to IBM mode So try the LQA IBM 24 adaptation file The printer might also print garbage if a printout is stopped with Q and an attempt is made to print again without first clearing the buffer shut the printer off then on Stop the printing process using RUN STOP to avoid this problem The printout is horizontally ragged or disarranged More than likely your printer can not handle the print optimizing function This occurs mainly when the elite mode has been switched on using the DIP switches Switch this off and try again You may also try turning off the print optimizing function by using the parameter file entitled LQP Nooptimize 55 Appendix A Parts of the text are printed too far to the left Your printer is having problems with the print optimizing factor The solutions in the previous point can be used here as well Wide blank spaces between unrecognizable print lines The problem could be an extra formfeed This problem occurs especially with the MPS 1230 See Section 2 topic Printer Adjustments which explains how to switch off the form feed Perhaps your printer is set to IBM mode so you may try LQA IBM 9 9 pins or LQA IBM 24 24 pins Small blank spaces between good print lines You may be using the wrong printer driver or the wrong printer adaptation Try a SG driver or the printer adaptation file
74. s file selection box Re arrange your document s location so that it is among the first 15 geoWrite documents on the work disk Read Write errors show up on the GEOS LQ Original disk If you are not able to copy the files over to another disk contact CMD to arrange for replacement 57 Appendix B GEOS LO Print System Error Messages The GEOS LQ Print System will let you know if it has encountered an error by showing an error message Here you will find a list of possible errors with explanations The following errors can show up prior to display of the file selection box They refer to errors in a modified parameter file or printer adaptation If these errors show up continually it might be best to erase the file and replace it with a supplied file which can then be re modified You might want to take a look at Section 4 topic The Configuration Files for more information Together with the error message the filename and text line are also given Number expected A number is missing possibly in the given text line Number out of range The number exceeds the allowed value range Yes or No expected Only yes or no capital letters allowed can be used sid Senso other than this was found Unexpected character A valid parameter is followed by an unexpected character too many characters There are too many characters within the quotation marks for instance by printer commands End of line expected
75. sssssescscrscseeses 9 9 pin Printers cinc eee ease Ll 24 pan POS ts 10 Detailed Description of HQ Printer Drivere ccccccesssecrersesccees 11 Type of Printer Driv f sense Cada seo Gea heed SSe aaa estt 12 Number Ob PINS indi Ds Rins oa ia o dicas andado 12 Degree Of Print Quality iscsi ices aiwesasewaeressdanicewtcaneeucsiosattecusecesbexcecs 12 Printer Type Specifications seccsccesscsccccesccscescescecsesscessescess 13 Connection Specifications eeeesoeeeeossseccssosesssssersseseesescseeeeso 13 Installing a Printer Driver isc cscissscssssovesecstswaiescsisiacecseussetasaccsdavccscdens 14 Selecting Desired Degree of Quality cssccssseccsees iia 14 Selecting Connection Type csccsscosscssccecceccesceccescscceescesseecs 14 Which Driver For Which Printer ccscccsccssccescesscesceconsceenes 14 9 pin printers Epson compatible ccccccsssscsscesceccesescesees 15 9 pin printers IBM compatible ccccccescesccsccescessccesseecees 15 9 pin Printers old Star printers SG and others 15 Other 9 8 7 pin PYinter cccscccscscccccccrsserersevsssesscecesees 15 24 pin Printers NEC compatible sccssccsccsscsescescesccescess 16 24 pin Printers from Epson original Epson printers 16 24 pin Printers IBM compatible scccsecescsesesceccessccscescees 16 Problems which
76. te and wish to achieve the best possibie printout simply follow the instructions in Section 4 If you are interested in improving the printout of your geoPaint or geoPublish documents or quickly and simply improving geoWrite printouts check out the description of the HQ interpolation drivers in Section 3 Don t let the size of this manual disturb you It is not necessary to read every section However the sections dealing with printer driver installation and the main program are extremely important Refer to those sections 3 and 4 if you re interested in getting started right away After successfully installing the HQ drivers and or the GEOS LQ program Perfect Print is ready to use The rest of this manual can be used as needed If you should wish to push Perfect Print to it s limit we recommend you spend time studying all the sections of this manual Introduction GEOS is a fascinating and productive system This graphic operating system complete with mouse driven icons windows pull down menus and applications running under the same environment has simplified the use of the Commodore 64 and 128 computers The basic GEOS system which includes geoWrite and geoPaint overshadows most other programs with it s capabilities and user friendliness Other GEOS applications offer a wide range of functions from database management to desktop publishing previously available only to users of larger and more expensive computer systems Un
77. test output than any other type of GEOS printer drivers We doubt that it is possible to produce faster drivers with higher output quality than these Moreover the 24 pin drivers are the only GEOS drivers we know of which utilize all 24 pins when printing The HQ 9 pin drivers work well with all GEOS applications without difficulty The 24 pin drivers however do not work well with geoCalc and geoChart due to memory conflicts These programs destroy areas of memory normally set aside for printer drivers We are continuing to look for a solution to this problem but for the time being you should use 9 pin drivers for printing from these applications All HQ drivers allow access to draft and NLQ options just like standard GEOS printer drivers For NLQ printing you should use the Commodore 10 point font to format your document Quick Installation of HQ Printer Drivers If you want to get right into producing better printouts follow the steps in the following paragraphs Should you have trouble with the installation refer to Installing HQ Printer Drivers later in this section After a successful installation the topic Detailed Description of HQ Printer Drivers offers additional information On the first side of the printer driver disk are 18 deskTop pages containing the drivers Copy the printer driver appropriate for your printer to a work disk and install it using the select printer item under the geos menu on the deskTop S
78. this is the MPS 1230 Here the Auto Linefeed must be manually switched off If your printout is horizontally ragged then switch off the elite or condensed style using the appropriate DIP switches The GC geoCable and 24 pin drivers and some of the Print System adaptation files do this automatically Many 24 pin printers can be switched to an IBM mode The 9 and 24 pin IBM drivers will then work properly but the NEC Epson 24 pin drivers will not i The Serial MPS 1230 Printer The serial connected Commodore MPS 1230 printer may require special adjustment before it becomes Epson compatible This can be changed in the following manner 2 Printer Emulated Epson FX 80 Open Mode 4 P C Commands 5 Commodore Comm Character Spacing 10 Carriage Retum CR CR The adjustment of these parameters takes place in a dialog with the printer Your printer manual explains how to accomplish this Section 3 The HO Drivers The HQ Driver Disk Contained in this package is a disk with an extensive collection of newly developed printer drivers There are interpolation HQ drivers mega drivers plus some simple but fast drivers which print in a lower quality There may also be a read me file in geoWrite format located on the disk which explains any newly developed printer drivers These drivers may be used in place of the printer drivers contained on your GEOS system disk HQ interpolation drivers give better print quality and fas
79. til now there has been one large drawback to the GEOS system the printout After carefully creating a stunningly attractive document in geoPaint geoWrite or geoPublish the inferior quality of the printout caused WYSIWYG to become WYSWMYG What You See Will Make You 1 Section 1 Gasp There were really only two alternatives Either put up with the poor results or turn to other more complex programs which offered better print results without GEOS Perfect Print was designed to solve this problem This package consists of the GEOS LQ Print System for geoWrite and a collection of powerful HQ interpolation printer drivers for the other applications The Print System expands geoWrite the most used application in GEOS to new printout dimensions Documents created with geoWrite can be printed out in the highest possible quality allowed by your printer Printouts of 240 x 216 dpi dots per inch on 9 pin printers and 360 x 360 dpi on 24 pin printers are attainable Special fonts are included which support the high resolution of the printer and make high quality printouts possible While the end result does not quite reach laser printer quality it can certainly be compared Naturally you ll also want to improve the printout quality of other GEOS applications The GEOS LQ Print System however only works directly with geoWrite documents Processing geoPaint or geoPublish documents in the same manner would not be technically possible so a diff
80. tion disk to your work disk Print Clicking once in the Print box starts the printing process Please ensure that your printer is online It may be a few seconds before the printer actually begins printing In 40 column mode the screen will change colors When the screen is dark the program is thinking and arranging the data A light screen lets you know the data is being transferred to the printer or the program is waiting for the printer Printing can be stopped by holding down the RUN STOP key Parallel printers can also be stopped immediately by pressing the Q key if RUN STOP doesn t work Remember to clear the buffer on your printer by turning the printer off and then on again If you want an immediate stop on a serial printer just turn the printer off The End Menu Upon completion of the printout or interruption the GEOS LQ Print System moves to the End Menu You will also arrive in the End Menu when you choose Cancel from the file selection window In the End Menu you can choose between five options Print same document again takes you back to the print menu If you choose this option but haven t really printed a document the program takes you to the file selection window Print another document takes you to the beginning of the program and the file selection window Open document with geoWrite takes you back into geoWrite and to the document you are working with Enter geoWrite without document will take you to geoWr
81. ut the HQ printer driver disk you shouldn t have any trouble finding the right file If you do encounter difficulty you can contact CMD Technical Support for help Let us know the printer and connection types 9 pin printers Epson compatible Practically all 9 pin printers such as Epson FX LX Commodore MPS from 1200 up Star Panasonic Citizen Fujitsu new Okidata and Seikosha from SP 1200VC up also SL 80VC and SP xxxAl Most 9 pin printers behave just like Epson printers and are thus referred to as Epson compatible You can check with your printer manual or dealer if you re not sure You can also try out a few which usually brings instant success If your printer is Epson compatible you will not need a LQA file on your work disk The program takes care of this itself Some SP 1200VC printers have a defective EPROM in their operating system which needs to be replaced before they will run properly 9 pin printers IBM compatible MPS 1000 parallel only some Panasonic Okidata Tandy and other often older printer models Also some Star models when in certain modes Some older printers are not Epson compatible but rather IBM compatible This is the case with the MPS 1000 which must be parallel connected In addition other older printers may be IBM compatible Use the adaptation file LQA IBM 9 for these printers Some newer 9 pin Epson compatible printers can be switched to the IBM mode and will work fine with an IBM
82. ution a bit Internal error This indicates an error in the Print System itself which cannot be displayed 60 Appendix C Contents of the Disks Disk 1 side A Pertect Print LQ Print System GeosLQ The Print System Read Me additional information Start LO accessory to start the Print System from geoWrite LQDemo2 1 demo text geoWrite 2 1 RomaLQ Print System font UniversityLQ Print System font LQConnect S1 connection files for the Print System LQConnect S4 connection files for the Print System LQConnect S5 connection files for the Print System LQConnect S7 connection files for the Print System LQConnect GC connection files for the Print System LQConnect GCFast connection files for the Print System LQConnect GCSlow connection files for the Print System LQA Epson X 9 pin printer adaptation file LQA IBM 9 9 pin printer adaptation file LQA Epson Half 9 pin printer adaptation file LQA Star SG 9 pin printer adaptation file LQA Oldmechanic 9 pin printer adaptation file LQA CP 80X 9 pin printer adaptation file LQA NEC 24 24A pin printer adaptation file LQA IBM 24 24 pin printer adaptation file LQA Epson Q 24 pin printer adaptation file LQA NEW Epson Q 24 pin printer adaptation file LQP Standard optional parameter file LQP 24 ideal optional parameter file LQP 1 3 wide optional parameter file LQP 12 inch optional parameter file LQP Nooptimize optional par
83. ware form feed With No here the system just sends a form feed command to the printer so the printer has to know the right form length you may modify that setting with DIP switches on most printers Yes tells the Print System to perform the form feed itself So a Yes here allows you to use any form length you want independent from the printer This is helpful when printing labels as the page length can easily be adjusted by just altering the value below see LQP Labels 11 0 0 255 99 Page length in inches This value determines the page length in inches This is important for setting the bottom line and for the form feed if the previous value is set at yes Other Other 80 0 639 Additional left margin for narrow text V1 0 2 0 0 0 639 Additional left margin for full width text V2 1 Both of these values regulate in pixels the left margin for the printout The first value is for narrow documents the second for those in which make full page wide in geoWrite has been chosen Yes Blank screen while printing If you re bored with a blank screen during printing then insert no here In 40 column mode you will then see the system work This slightly prolongs the printing with GEOS 64 With No here on GEOS 128 the 2 MHz mode will not be used when printing 37 Section 4 1 Number of identical pin strikes When using a worn out ribbon the number of identical pin strikes can be regu
84. xotic 9 pin printer neither functions without adaptation nor with LQA IBM then try out the LQA Oldmechanic and the LQA Epson Half half compatible files If you are unable to produce quality results with this software or are unable to get your printer to work with this package please contact CMD Technical support for help Let us know the exact printer make and type and how the printer is connected to your computer serial parallel interface etc You might also supply us with some sample printouts if possible We will try to solve the problem but we may require a copy of your printer and or interface manual s if the printer and or interface are less common Optional Parameter Files Besides the connection and adaptation files you can also install a parameter file on to your work disk This file can be changed within geoWrite to alter the page size enlarge or reduce the whole document etc More on this in Section 4 topic The Configuration Files The default parameter file is LQP Standard located on page 5 of the deskTop Using the GEOS LQ Print System The Print System is very user friendly The information contained in this section may help you better understand some of the options available 26 The GEOS LQ Print System The Documents to be Printed Generally any geoWrite document but not geoPublish documents can be printed with the Print System If LQ fonts are used then the best possible print quality will
85. your computer parallel or serial The following information will let you know if you need adaptation or connection files and if so which ones If these files are needed be sure to copy them to the work disk on which GeosLQ is located Its important that only one printer adaptation and one connection file be found on your work disk If several are located together on the same disk the program will only recognize the first one Please check the topic Printer Adjustments in Section 2 to see if any special printer adjustments are needed The configuration files adaptation and connection files can be erased after the first use of the save operation in the print menu as they will no longer be needed see save description in Section 4 topic Printer Adaptation subtopic Optional Parameter Files Connection File Selection If your printer is serial connected you should not need any connection file The following information is only of interest to those whose printers are parallel connected or whose serial connected printers do not work properly In this case one of the connection files located on deskTop page 2 front side of the Print System disk will be needed The names of all these files begin with LQConnect and end with one of the following abbreviations 22 The GEOS LQ Print System S1 S4 S5 S7 GC GCSlow or GCFast GC indicates a parallel connection A parallel connected printer should
86. z mode The Printer Adaptation Like the other configuration files the printer adaptation file is a normal geoWrite document In most cases it is not useful to alter this file as an adaptation file for practically every available printer is supplied You should only attempt to alter the adaptation file if you re well versed in printers and printer codes Even then care should be taken as the structure of the adaptation file is very complicated 38 The GEOS LQ Print System If you should have problems it is best to turn to us for help Let us know your exact printer type and we will see if an adaptation file exists for it Most of the time problems with the printer are not in the adaptation but rather in using the wrong LQConnect file or incorrect DIP switch settings Therefore read through those sections again 39 fz he at Section 5 LO Fonts Depending upon which package you ve purchased either 7 or 45 LQ fonts have been supplied with Perfect Print LQ These fonts when used with the GEOS LQ Print System provide the best possible printing results These fonts can also be altered with the supplied font utilities More information concerning these programs is given in Section 6 Please read these sections before attempting to alter or create your own LQ fonts How the LQ Fonts Work The GEOS LQ Print System requires larger point sizes than geoWrite in order to deliver improved results If you re using for

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