Printer Zero

Some large printers do not provide a “Ø” for zero but it is handy to have at times. The regular zero is usually slightly different in shape than a “O”. The Panasonic 1080i printer lacks this feature but it is easily added and some other Epson compatables should be just as easy to change. One printer design requirement is access to the printer RAM.

Access to the RAM is by ESC+y+D where ESC is LPRINT 27, y is LPRINT 121, and D is the character code location. Select the location for the same as zero or character code 48. Thus every time the zero key is pressed the printer produces the desired slashed character.

The program I save on disc is this:

10 LPRINT CHR$ 27; CHR$ 121; CHR$ 48;
20 FOR N = 1 TO 9
30 READ a
40 LPRINT CH$ a;
50 NEXT N
60 DATA 58,68,0,138,16,162,0,68,184
70 REM RUN and "Ø" is now stored in the printer RAM until the printer power is off or the direct command LPRINT CHR$ 27; CHR$ 122; CHR$ 48 will cancel it.
80 REM computer power off or DELETE or NEW will clear the program which remains in the printer RAM.

The user will find this approach much easier to use than using the socalled European codes because the zero key can be used in place of the appropriate sustitute character code. Also the user can alter the shape if desired.

For those readers who have not tried printer graphics, contrary to the computer graphic UDGs, the character is generated from left to right with the bottom print pixel or hammer being 1 and the top hammer being 128. However the pins are numbered from the top down. The top pin #1 is 128 in 8-bit mode but the top pin is not used in 7-bit mode. Confusing?

The DATA uses pins as follows:

 58=3,4,5,8
 68=2,6
  0=0
138=1,5,7
 16=4
162=1,3,7
  0=0
 68=2,6
184=1,3,4,5