I've had my Amiga for a while, but I'm new to printing. What does the Amiga do
with printer commands if you try to send them directly to the printer? I've
tried with both Amiga BASIC and Wordwright to send commands such as ESC-E to
change settings on the printer, but they seem to be ignored completely. How do
these things work? Is there a generic printer command for bold, underline,
etc. which the printer driver is supposed to translate or whut? Help!
Barry,
There are indeed generic (Amiga) printer commands that you send to the "prt:"
device. The printer device then interprets the commands according to the
printer driver you (or the user) has set. This way, you don't have to worry
about what printer is being used, even in Basic.
If you do want to send "raw" commands, send it to either the "par:" or the
"ser:" device, depending on which port the printer is connected to. Note that
you will not be able to open the "par:" device if the "prt:" device is already
open, and vice versa (assuming a par printer).
—Mike