Buy Printfil Online!

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, 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:

The following table has the default sequences and the entries you can use in PRINTFIL.INI to customize them.

(1) The normal width of the font, as we have previously said, is computed based on the sheet dimensions and on the number of characters per row specified in the configuration dialog or in the FILENAME.CFG.
For example, if we have an A4 sheet, the columns are set to 80 and the margins are set to 0.5 Cm., we'll have a width of about 10 cpi. We assume this dimension to be "normal" (i.e. sending chr(27)+chr(18) ). To set a font with different dimensions, PRINTFIL will use the ratio between the normal dimension and the desired one. For example: Condensed = Normal / 10 * 17 (80 "normal" characters = 80 / 10 * 17 = 136 "condensed" characters in the same space in a row).

(2) Using this sequences you can change the font used in the print job.
For example, if in the middle of a job you print chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(7)+"Arial"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(8), all the following characters will be printed in Arial font. To reset the font to the default (the one specified in PRINTFIL.INI), you have to specify an empty font. i.e. chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(7)+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(8). The Font_End sequence is useful only if you want to print other characters in the same row, otherwise you can simply print a chr(10) - Line Feed. For example: chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(7)+"Arial"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(8)+chr(13)+chr(10) is the same as chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(7)+"Arial"+chr(10)

(3) Using this sequences you can insert a graphical image into the page.
For example, after printing all the text in page 1 (including a chr(12) - Eject, if needed) you can insert chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(11)+"C:\BACKGR\LOGO.BMP"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(14), just before to print the text on page 2.
Please note to place it at the beginning of the page, just before to print the text, so you can eventually place the text over the bitmap.
You can put more than one bitmap per page concatenating the sequences. For example:
chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(11)+"C:\BACKGR\LOGO.BMP|1|1|5|-1"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(14) +
chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(11)+"C:\BACKGR\SIDEBAR.BMP|10|1|-1|7"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(14).
The Img_End sequence is useful only if you want to print other characters in the same row, otherwise you can simply print a chr(10) - Line Feed. For example: chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(11)+"logo.bmp"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(14)+chr(13)+chr(10) is the same as chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(11)+"logo.bmp"+chr(10)
For a deep explanation of the 4 optional parameters to place the bitmap everywhere on the sheet, please see the next chapter.

(4) Using this sequences you can change the font's color.
For example, if in the middle of a job you print chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(15)+"255"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(16), all the following characters will be printed in red. To reset the color to the default (the one specified in PRINTFIL.INI), you have to specify an empty color. i.e. chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(15)+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(16). The Color_End sequence is useful only if you want to print other characters in the same row, otherwise you can simply print a chr(10) - Line Feed. For example: chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(15)+"0"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(16)+chr(13)+chr(10) is the same as chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(15)+"0"+chr(10).
For a deep explanation about the various color's numbers see the Color setting in Chapter 3: Configuration

(5) Using this sequences you can change the number of copies. The "Copies" parameter works at the entire job level, not for a single page. If more than a "copies sequence" is present in the print job, Printfil will apply the last found one to all the pages in the print job.
For example, if in the middle of a job you print chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(17)+"2"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(18), the job willbe printed in 2 copies. The Copies_End sequence is useful only if you want to print other characters in the same row, otherwise you can simply print a chr(10) - Line Feed. For example: chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(17)+"3"+chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(18)+chr(13)+chr(10) is the same as chr(27)+chr(80)+chr(17)+"3"+chr(10)

Buy Printfil Online!