Henrique:
Read this: http://czyborra.com/unifont/
Unifont uses 8x16 matrix for latin characters and many others with low
complexity. For chinese and
other complex characters use 16x16, so complex chartacters will take 2
text positions on the
printed output.
The hex unifont is at: http://www.czyborra.com/unifont/unifont.hex.gz
examples on the above page:
0041: --------
--------
--------
--------
---##---
--#--#--
--#--#--
-#----#-
-#----#-
-######-
-#----#-
-#----#-
-#----#-
-#----#-
--------
--------
4E21: ----------------
----------------
-#############--
-------#--------
-------#--------
--###########---
--#----#----#---
--#-#--#--#-#---
--#-#--#--#-#---
--#-#--#--#-#---
--#-#--#--#-#---
--#-#######-#---
--#-#-----#-#---
--#---------#---
--#--------##---
----------------
El 06/05/2011 02:38 p.m., Henrique Peron escribió:
> Freely available, Marco. I just didn't upload it into the FreeDOS
> database because it was meant for (my) internal work only. I sent a copy
> of that huge file to Viste for him to include it as an internal database
> for his Foxtype Unicode text file viewer.
>
> However, should any software developer be interested on that, I could
> upload it into the FreeDOS database so that I would maintain it. There
> would always be new glyphs to be included. Therefore, I would always
> keep updating that huge text file. Let me call it a "glyph database".
>
> That GNU Unifont bitmap file you mentioned is better in a way, because
> it is far more comprehensive than mine. However, it bases its characters
> on a 16x16 matrix, instead of an 8x16 one. Anyway, I'll e-mail the author.
>
> Thank you for the info!
>
> Best regards,
> Henrique Peron
>
> Em 6/5/2011 14:12, Marco Achury escreveu:
>> Sounds very interesting.
>>
>> Look around for the TT font named "GNU Unifont", contains a very big
>> subset of unicode
>> and is not vectorial, is based on bitmaps, looks ready for dot matrix
>> printing.
>>
>> Your gliph file is freely available?
>>
>> Best regards
>>
>> Marco Achury
>>
>>
>> El 06/05/2011 03:30 a.m., Henrique Peron escribió:
>>> Yes Eric,
>>>
>>> now that you mentioned that, it was what I did with that Epson LX-800
>>> printer that I had - but, as I had said, I used MS-DOS 6.0 and QBASIC
>>> for that. Developing a wholly independent program for that is something
>>> else - which I don't know how.
>>>
>>> My question is still up, Eric: Would you be interested? I know that you
>>> said "regarding your question" but I think I didn't understand what you
>>> meant. Let me see - your idea was to give coordinates on how to do the
>>> whole thing? If it was that, it was helpless. I'm sorry. It seems that
>>> you have the knowledge to develop the "printer driver" (well, a program
>>> that would send pixel data to printers). I could enter with the info on
>>> the pixel data itself.
>>>
>>> I have a huge text file with many glyphs in the format below. You'll see
>>> the Euro sign as an example. That huge text file is composed primarily
>>> by extracted data from the 8x16 font files of all codepages that I had
>>> prepared for FreeDOS' CPI files until 2006. That was part of a
>>> partnership between me and Mateusz Viste for his Foxtype Unicode text
>>> file viewer for FreeDOS. He provided the software that extracted data
>>> from the font files. In a following step, I edited that huge text file
>>> directly to enter more Unicode chars which weren't (some still aren't)
>>> part of any codepage.
>>>
>>> #20AC
>>> ........
>>> ........
>>> ........
>>> ..@@@@..
>>> .@@..@@.
>>> @@......
>>> @@@@@...
>>> @@......
>>> @@@@....
>>> @@......
>>> @@......
>>> .@@..@@.
>>> ..@@@@..
>>> ........
>>> ........
>>> ........
>>>
>>>
>>> The number refers to the hex code (Unicode). Naturally, every dot would
>>> be a "0" and every "@" would be a "1"; with a little math, we have pixel
>>> data for any printer.
>>>
>>> The following step would be to create association files. I would prepare
>>> them.
>>>
>>> Let's say that we would have a file called "CP858.TXT", which would be
>>> checked by, let's say, "PRINTER.EXE". There would be a line which would
>>> read:
>>>
>>> D5, 20AC
>>>
>>> Then, I would run
>>> C:\> PRINTER 858
>>>
>>> Now, PRINTER.EXE knows that it would have to check CP858.TXT. If, when
>>> intercepting data being sent to a printer, it receives byte D5h, it
>>> would send the glyph code 20AC from the text file I have here.
>>>
>>> You see, Bert and Eric, that in what concerns the characters themselves,
>>> I have that figured out already (ok, perhaps I missed something - if you
>>> feel that to be the case, please let me know). However, in what concerns
>>> *how to send the data to the printer*, someone else will be needed for that.
>>>
>>> I think that you both agree that we could forget about the idea of
>>> developing software to extract data from CPI files (no matter who would
>>> do that). That leaves another variable out of the equation and
>>> simplifies the whole process, in my opinion.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Henrique
>>>
>>>
>>> Em 5/5/2011 20:09, Eric Auer escreveu:
>>>> Hi Henrique, Bret,
>>>>
>>>>> interesting to know that there's someone out there, familiar to FreeDOS,
>>>>> still using those 9-pin printers. At least here in Brazil they're still
>>>>> used on lots of places because of their low operational cost.
>>>>>
>>>>> Well, Eric and Konstantyn... So much for the museum idea!
>>>> Well... We had a 24 pin printer 20 years ago and I patched some closed
>>>> source tools which were hardcoded for a 9 pin printer from 25-30 years
>>>> ago to work with that new printer when the old 9 pin broke, so... ;-)
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, regarding your question and the comment from Bret: I think you
>>>> can do quite a bit with ESC/P, HP PCL and PostScript when you stick to
>>>> basic feature sets, as those tend to be in the "common denominator" of
>>>> things supported by different variants of said printer languages. You
>>>> can check the FreeDOS GRAPHICS source codes for the general idea if
>>>> you like, Bret :-)
>>>>
>>>> The short story for printing text as graphics is as follows: You send
>>>> some ESC sequence to initiate graphics mode, then you send a header
>>>> sequence saying that N columns of pixel data follow and then you send
>>>> the pixel data as either 1 or 3 bytes per column (8 or 24 pins used).
>>>>
>>>> For 24 pins, you can either scale a VGA font, increase margins, or both,
>>>> or design a special printer font. I think scaling 8x8 would be a bit
>>>> pointless (can just use low quality 8 pin mode then, even 24 pin head
>>>> printers support that) so I would either go for 8x16 and leave 8 pins
>>>> unused (line spacing and thus papere movement per line of graphics are
>>>> adjustable after all) or try to tweak-scale 8x14 to "ca 2 times 8x12".
>>>>
>>>> For PostScript and HP PCL, the pixel data formats are different, but
>>>> you can be very creative with PostScript anyway. Actually uploading
>>>> a font might be a good choice for the latter, or turning the font to
>>>> some sort of "rendering macro" that you would send as "header" before
>>>> the text that you want to be printed.
>>>>
>>>> As far as I remember, HP PCL pixel data was row oriented, so you send
>>>> all pixels for one stripe of paper (e.g. as wide as suitable to print
>>>> 80 characters if that is the output style you have in mind) at a time
>>>> and the printer itself decides how to pool pixels to avoid having to
>>>> move the print head too much. Usually it would flush the pool when a
>>>> page gets full or no new data arrives for a certain amount of time.
>>>>
>>>> Regards, Eric
>>>>
>>>>
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--
--
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
Marco A. Achury
Tel: +58-(212)-6158777
Cel: +58-(414)-3142282
Skype: marcoachury
http://www.achury.com.ve
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