SHORT INTRODUCTION to the
crc204m3.prn printer descriptor file

Copyright 1996 J.P.H.W. van den Eijnde

PURPOSE
This is a multi-purpose printer driver for the 9-pin matrix color printer
MPS1500c, operating in IBM graphics printer mode, with extra color effects
(with ESC r). It uses internal printer fonts, if desired, and *.mft graphic
fonts in a resolution of 240x216 dpi. However, horizontally adjacent dots
cannot be printed. All fonts are assumed to be in the font\9pin\mft directory.
Please change the corresponding line in the printer driver if the fonts are
to be found elsewhere.

STYLES
QI:    Fixed width letters, in pIca pitch (10 cpi). In letter quality mode
       only graphic i*.mft fonts are used, except computer, which is mapped
       to the standard NLQ internal printer font. In draft mode internal
       NLQ printer fonts are used for standard, small, bold and underlin,
       whereas computer is mapped to the standard draft internal printer
       font. International NLQ characters on the printer are used whenever
       possible (in draft mode). Script and gothic are proportional graphic
       fonts (12 cpi average!).
QE:    Fixed width letters, in Elite pitch (12 cpi). Otherwise similar to
       the QI style, only this time using e*.mft graphic fonts.
QP:    Proportional width letters, with average pitch 12 cpi. In Letter
       Quality mode using alphabetical q*.mft quality fonts, and symbolic
       e*.mft fonts. In draft mode using alphabetical p*.mft regular fonts
       and symbolic e*.mft fonts. The computer font is always mapped to
       the standard NLQ internal printer font (fixed width).
Imap:  Fixed width letters, in pIca pitch (10 cpi). Internal printer fonts
       are used whenever available, not only for standard, small, bold,
       computer and underlin, but also symbols from IBM Table 2, e.g. in
       symbol, greek, linedraw, mathi and mathii. In draft mode draft
       printer characters are used, in Letter Quality mode NLQ characters.
       All non-available characters are taken from graphic i*.mft fonts,
       except gothic and script, which are proportional (p*.mft, 12 cpi).
Emap:  Similar to Imap, only this time in Elite pitch (12 cpi), and using
       e*.mft graphic fonts.
Icol:  Fixed width letters, in pIca pitch (10 cpi). Internal printer fonts
       (in black) are used for standard, small, bold and underlin, and the
       other "alphabetic" fonts italic, computer, greek, orator, script and
       gothic are all mapped to the standard internal printer font, in six
       different colors. Draft produces draft fonts, Letter Quality NLQ
       fonts. Symbolic fonts are mapped to graphic i*.mft fonts.
Ecol:  Similar to Icol, only in Elite pitch (12 cpi), and using e*.mft
       graphic fonts.
Laser: Proportional width letters, with average pitch 9.6 cpi. All letters
       are approximately 50% larger than normal letters. Line spacing is
       changed from the usual 24 lpi (in quarter lines) to 18 lpi. This is
       caused by the fact that p*.lft alphabetical and e*.lft symbolic
       laser fonts are used, originally designed for use on a 300x300 dpi
       laser printer. These fonts are assumed to be in the font\48pin\lft
       directory. Note that the outdated ChiWriter 3 font porator.lft uses
       small capitals instead of lower case characters, and does not
       support international accented characters.

Note that there is no style using internal proportional printer fonts.
Although the printer supports them, printing them from ChiWriter is very
awkward. ChiWriter sends escape characters before and after each word to
switch fonts, and this causes the printer to print each word separately,
the print head moving back and forth in a nervous way. This takes a lot of
time, discarding the main reason to use internal fonts. Moreover, the use
of proportional fonts enforces the application of micro spacing, and due
to a printer bug the line level of NLQ words keeps dropping between each
graphics block.


GRAPHICS PRINTING
Graphic fonts with *.mft fonts are printed with SLOW printer head movement,
with up to 6 graphic passes per line, so printing may be slow. However,
the result is of reasonable quality (of course not like a laser printer).



EXTRA COLOR EFFECT
In all styles overall color is determined by the number of thousands in
the number of pages to be printed ("printer-to-page" value). As the number
of pages is never expected to exceed 999 this is a safe trick of changing
the color. Note that if the printing style is not changed when changing
the printer-to-page value, the style procedure is not executed again, so
if one wants the color change to take effect the selected style has to be
changed once or twice (e.g. changed to another style and back again). The
number of thousands determines the color according to the following table:

0  standard black
1  magenta
2  blue
3  violet
4  yellow
5  orange/red
6  green
7  computer font red, the rest is blue
8  computer font red, the rest is standard black
9  standard black


