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Chapter 5
- Control codes - Escape sequences
Some special characters
inserted in the ASCII print file can be used to modify
the appearance of the print job.
Also known as Escape
Sequences, these codes were commonly used in text-mode
printing to obtain special effects, such as bold,
underline, and so on.
There were different
sets of escape sequences for different printer models, so
printing to an Epson printer were requiring the
programmer to send a different ascii stream than printing
the same job to an HP printer.
Using
PRINTFIL with the GDI printing engine, a single set of Control Codes can be used to
produce those effects to ANY Windows printer, regardless
of which emulation it supports (or no
emulation at all if it is a Windows-only printer),
because PRINTFIL automatically translates the control
codes found on the ascii print-job file into the correct
Graphical Effects for the selected printer, using the
Windows printer driver.
PRINTFIL has its
own set of Escape Sequences, but if you cannot
change the source ascii file (or you dont want to change
it), you can customize them, by inserting the desired
characters (in decimal notation, separated by commas) in
the Printfil's configuration dialog, or directly in the
[Sequences] section of the PRINTFIL.INI file (but in this
case you'll have to restart Printfil in order to apply
the changes).
If Printfil's escape
sequences does not match those embedded by the source
application into its print jobs, you'll see some extra
characters printed within the text. If you
already know which kind of sequences your source app. is
embedding (Epson, HP, ...), you can select them in the Configuration -> Standard -> Escape dialog. If you don't know which
kind of sequences are them you can find them out
by using the "Help -> Dump: Redo Last Print"
Printfil's menu entry. In this way you'll see the decimal
value near each character in your last printed job.
It is also
possible to simultaneously use more than a sequence for
each effect, allowing Printfil to correctly
manage jobs designed for different printer models: Epson,
HP etc. without to modify the source app. To do so,
simply separate the different sequences by the pipe char
("|" - 124 dec.)
For example:
C:\WINDOWS\PRINTFIL.INI
[Sequences]
Bold_on=27,80,1
Bold_off=27,80,2
Ignore_Chars=26,69|27,67,66
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The next chapter lists all the entries in the Printfil.ini file with the supported sequences.
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