Atari800 Emulator and The Print Shop

[robpalasz]

I'm trying to use PrinterToPDF to convert output from The Print Shop running on the Atari800 emulator in Linux Mint 19.3. I've tried several printers in The Print Shop, but get either garbage or an output with unwanted line feeds (blank lines) in the first 3/4 of the sign I'm printing. To get the file size low enough for the attachments, I printed a blank sign with what should be a thin solid border all on one page, but the extra line feeds make it about a page and a quarter. I'm not sure if it was intended for this purpose, but it almost works. The selected printer for this example is the Epson MX- series. I opened the prn file in a hex editor and printed the results too. If you could please advise, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

[RWAP]

Without having the source prn file you are trying to convert, I cannot test this, but I would surmise the issue is line 45 of PrinterConvert.c

Basically, the default setting for PrinterConvert.c is to use 24 pin printing (the ESC/P2 standard). Unfortunately, EPSON changed how line spacing works for EsC/P2 compared with the original 9 pin ESC/P.

Change line 45 to read:

Code: Select all

int needles = 9;

See if that resolves the issue

What other printers did you try (which you say produced garbage)?

[robpalasz]

Yes, changing needles to 9 helped a lot, but not entirely. I don't know the technical term, but changing needles to 9 made the printout be the correct height (not so stretched out vertically), but it did not correct the extra line spaces. I did some digging into the .prn file using Ghex and found where the printout wan't adding the extra lines half way through. It was where a 1B 41 07 line spacing command was inserted. So, I added this command to the very beginning of the file, followed by a 0D 0A (CR, LF), and that solved the issue! Perfect results. Test1 is before the correction and Test2 is afterwards.

The printers that produced bad results were the NEC8023A, Okidata Microline 92,93, and the Prowriter. I used the "EPSON MX-, FX-, RX- (80 or 100), JX-80" selection in Print Shop for the best results.

I'm attaching my installation notes for any Mint 19.3 users who may be interested.

Thanks for your help!

[RWAP]

I am not sure why the ESC A 07 didn't work.

It should have changed the line spacing to 7/72"

I assume that the problem was not this command as such, but maybe the program was assuming that this was the default at the start of the page (according to the Epson printer manual, this defaults to 1/6" or 12/72")? Perhaps this was a DIP switch setting on the printers?