[RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

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XavSnap
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[RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

Post by XavSnap »

Hi,

I planed to code a printer emulator to convert the Centronics VB81 output.
:shock:
dot1.JPG
lx80.JPG
But the excellent "PrinterToPDF" from Rwap, seem to do the same (very) better work!

https://github.com/RWAP/PrinterToPDF
https://www.retroprinter-support.com/vi ... 0dd04#p182

Two questions to RWAP:
1) Is where any win32 compiled binary exe release available yet ?
2) Can i help to generate binary tables (ROM dot matrix) from the FX80 and the GP100a printers.
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
RWAP
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Re: [RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

Post by RWAP »

Glad you have found the PrinterToPDF which works as well.

As for compiled versions of that - no, there are no Windows versions - feel free to make one if you like - Windows has not been a target market for me, because there are already several printer capture programs which run under WIndows (such as QPCPrint).

I am not sure how generating binary dumps of the ROMs from Epson (and Epson compatible) printers would help - if the fonts could be extracted and converted to a suitable format, Epson have (off the record) said they would be willing to allow them to be used - however, the fonts are in a very unusual format (or so Epson say) and are unlikely to help.
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XavSnap
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Re: [RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

Post by XavSnap »

Hi Rwap,

I have enter the "C16" Siemens dot matix in "Udgs Factory":
dots.JPG
It seem to be a 8x16 dots matrix.

Is-it possible to set another printer ? :
- GP100a : 5x7
- MX80 : 9x9 ( half horizontal step)

Using the 16x8 dots matrix…
At least, for the GP100a, we can using 4 blank+ 7 datas+ 5 blanks.
I will put the C16 file on this tread, but the character width (Dot steps) will be different.

For the Epson MX80, the last dot will be forget !
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
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Re: [RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

Post by RWAP »

Yes the C16 font is 8 x 16. It was just a free font we found which was a good fit for an Epson font.

For the Retro-Printer I have been developing my own fonts, but this is a time consuming process and I am not about to give them away for free.

The idea of PrinterToPDF is that others can contribute to / improve the code also. If you want to develop different fonts for the GP100a and MX80, then feel free, the printchar routine would need to be adjusted to use the correct steps between the characters as well as the widths/ heights etc.
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XavSnap
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Re: [RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

Post by XavSnap »

Hi Rwap,
- GP100a : 5x7
Using the 16x8 dots matrix…
At least, for the GP100a, we can using 4 blank+ 7 datas+ 5 blanks.
Ascii chars : 0 to 127/$7F (standard chars)
enclosed in the GP100A_Std.C16

Ascii : 160/$A0 to 223/$DF (alternative chars)
enclosed in the GP100A_ALT.C16
GP100a_DotMatrix.zip
(1.22 KiB) Downloaded 154 times
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
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Re: [RetroPrinter] PrinterToPDF... on my ZX81.

Post by XavSnap »

Hi,
# Pica Standard matrix for PR90-055 printer
#
# Matrix is as true as possible (cf PR90-055 documentation) but the position
# of the character in the cell could be not exact
https://sourceforge.net/p/teoemulator/c ... /picas.txt
Like the Epson mx80, we can't use the 8bits buffers…

The matrix file take lines datas in stead of columns datas! (vertical len <=8 and the width >8)
But, some of graphics character are set in 12x8 !
The best way to init the dot matrix is to generate an ini file, to set the X,Y length.

Code: Select all

FFFFFFFFFF
FEFFFFFFFF
vvvvvvvvvvv
* . * * * * * * BF >>
* * * * * * * * FF >>
* * * * * * * * FF >>
* * * * * * * * FF >>
* * * * * * * * FF >>
………………..
Xavier ...on the Facebook groupe : "Zx81 France"(fr)
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